A Naruto Story
by crazylelenumber1
Summary: When Naruto's normality in high school comes crashing down around him what will happen? And what happened to make him how he is? AU High School setting. UNDER CONSTRUCTION
1. Prologue

_I looked around at the bright light surrounding my body as it always did when I was asleep. It was so nice to just float in the bright, peaceful light. Not having to think about anything, just being able to float._

I was suddenly snapped out of my wonderland as a beep came from the alarm clock that was all to close to my head. I rolled over trying to get away from the incessant beeping. I closed my eyes and tried to get back to that nice bright place, but as always it was gone as soon as I opened my eyes.

I got up and glanced around my familiar room. It was actually relatively clean, not really what you would expect from the idiot that never pays attention in class and is far too loud for his own good. A few things cluttered my floor simply because I had no place to put them.

I headed to the bathroom as I'm sure most people do in the morning. After finishing my business I looked into the mirror above the sink. I saw my bright blue eyes staring back at me with the ever present sadness lingering in them. I ran a hand through my messy hair; then rubbed the whisker-like tattoos on the sides of my cheeks. 'All normal, nothing wrong. Why would it be?' I thought, still staring at myself in the mirror.

I stripped off my pajamas and stepped into the shower. I let the warm water slide down my aching muscles. I sighed, but got out of the shower after only a few minutes. I toweled myself off and stepped into my school uniform. It consisted of navy blue dress pants, a white dress shirt with a navy blue tie and a dark green sweater if the weather was cold.

I left the bathroom and went to the kitchen. Where I grabbed an apple to eat at school; I really didn't feel like eating anything at that moment. I scooped up my bag from the hall while putting on tennis shoes. I went to the door and almost pulled it open, but stopped. I forced a huge smile onto my face before stepping out the door.

* * *

AN: This is the prologue. It's in Naruto's perspective thought the rest of the fic is in third person. There is going to be a big Author's Note before the next chapter to explain the fic and stuff. Well hope you like it!


	2. Kakashi's Question

Disclaimer- Why would you even think I owned Naruto?

****Warning****

*This fic most likely will contain BoyXBoy relationships

*This fic has physical abuse in it

*This fic has descriptions of death

*This fic has non-hardcore descriptions of rape

****If you don't want to read about that stuff do not continue to read this!!!****

This is an AU High School fic that starts near the beginning of the school year, just a few weeks in.

Ages/Grades are as fallows:

Naruto- 15 almost 16 Junior

Gaara- 16 Junior

Kiba- 17 Junior

Sasuke- 17 Senior

Neji- 18 Senior

Lee- 18 Senior

TenTen- 18 Senior

Kankuro - 18 Senior

Shikamaru- 16 Senior (will explain)

Choji- 17 Senior

Hinata- 16 Junior

Sakura- 17 Senior

Shino- 17 Senior

Ino- 17 Senior

Temari (may make an appearance)- 19 Freshman in Collage

'blah blah' - thoughts

"blah blah" - talking

_"blah blah"_ - speaking Japanese

Kakashi's Question

Naruto walked to school with his face twisted in his fake smile just in case someone from school were to see him. He arrived at school right on time for once; he was not a morning person. Walking down the hall he barely noticed the familiar faces around him. When he got to his locker Gaara was already there. He was Naruto's best friend they knew just about everything about each other. Naruto didn't say anything; he knew if Gaara wanted to talk that he would. Gaara didn't say anything today, he just nodded at him and walked away. Naruto wasn't offended although they were best friends they didn't feel the need to constantly talk. They talked when it was important or they were both in a good mood.

A minute later Kiba came up to Naruto and started talking. Naruto thought Kiba was a good guy, he considered him to be about as close as you could be to him without Naruto being uncomfortable. Naruto wasn't listening to Kiba, but nodded every so often. He really wished that he would stop talking. Kiba had stopped talking and was waiting for an answer to a question. Naruto shook his head a little. "Sorry, Kiba. I just zoned a little there. What was that?" he asked in his fake happy joking voice.

"Oh, um, I was wondering if you were going to be free Friday. There's a party." Kiba said, a bit disgruntled at the fact Naruto wasn't paying attention.

"Sorry, man I gotta work that night," Naruto said, pretending to be embarrassed. He rubbed the back of his head for effect.

"You're always working," Kiba complained. "Why not take one night off? Everyone we know is going to be there."

Naruto almost wished he could, he hated seeing dog-boy down. "Sorry Kiba," he shrugged. "Can't even take one night off."

Naruto walked off then not waiting for another response from the annoyed brunette. As Naruto stepped into homeroom he was glad to see he was one of the first in the room which left his normal seat open; he sat there whenever he could. It was at the back of the classroom two seats from the wall. Naruto didn't like sitting anywhere else. If he did then he would feel the prickly stares for the other students on his back. He hated that; he hated when people stared.

Naruto sat down and grabbed his ipod out of his backpack so that he could listen to it before class started. He put on his genius playlist of 'I'm Just a Kid' by Simple Plan and started to play a game of solitaire. Naruto didn't bother looking up as the bell rang. Kakashi was always late to class, so he knew that he had a little time. After he finished his game he paused the song and turned his ipod off stashing it in his bag. Naruto again plastered a smile to his face just as Kakashi walked into the room eight minutes late reading his ever present orange book.

Kakashi always wore a mask and an eye patch. No one knew why but he did. He always wore relatively casual clothes for a teacher. But people didn't seam to care; even though the students all had to wear uniforms. Kakashi put his book down two minutes later and counted the students. "Okay, seems that everyone is here today," he announced easily. "Let's get started with the real class right away." Kakashi was not only their homeroom teacher but their Social Studies/History teacher as well.

Everyone took out their notebooks, so Naruto did the same. But as Kakashi started to lecture Naruto let his mind slip away into a daydream. Eventually he noticed that everyone in the class was staring at him. Naruto tensed under the scrutiny not knowing the reason behind their actions.

"What?" He asked loudly, trying to act like he normally did in school, stupid. The stares coming from every direction of the room were really not helping him out though.

"I asked if you knew the answer to number two," stated Kakashi, bored.

"Nope I don't," Naruto answered unashamed after only glancing at it. A few students gaped at him for his forwardness. Kakashi sighed and said, "Naruto you and I both know you have the answer, so why don't you just tell us?"

Naruto sighed. He seriously didn't need this. It was much easier to be the stupid kid who always sits in the back. He didn't want to be the weird smart kid. So, he tried one more time. "But I really don't know…"

Kakashi's one visible eye glared at him hard. He saw through the lie.

"Fine, fine! Just stop glaring at me!" Naruto said loudly still playing the fool. He looked at the board at the second question. He chose his words carefully still feeling the stares directed at him. He simply answered, "In 1932, Thailand became a Constitutional Monarchy. Specifically on the 24th of June, though Thailand was invaded by Japan during the Second World War." He still felt the stares on him. A few people were even whispering behind their hands.

Kakashi sighed and thanked Naruto for his accurate answer. Naruto dropped his fake smile and put his head on the desk. When he could take the stares no longer, he put his notebook into his bag and stood. He glared at anyone in the class that looked at him funny as he walked to the front. He hated the stares which were why most of the time he didn't answer any questions in class. He lied about his grades so that he wouldn't get any attention he found unnecessary. Kakashi looked up at him.

"Naruto please return to your seat," he said with no emotion, peeved.

"No. I'm leaving," he said lightly without another glance.

"Naruto come back before I give you detention."

This stopped the blond in his tracks. He knew if he got detention he wouldn't be able to go to work. Naruto sighed inwardly. "Fine, I'll stay," he agreed, not turning around; still managing to keep his light tone of voice.

Kakashi was slightly surprised but didn't show it outwardly. He was sure Naruto would take whatever punishment he gave him. The blond did another surprising thing- he unzipped his bag and took out a notebook. Once he had done that he made to give it to Kakashi but changed his mind heading back to his seat. A few minutes later the bell rang and everyone got out of their seats to leave.

"Don't forget to do your homework tonight!" Kakashi called after the class as they exited the room.

Naruto sat at the back of the class not having heard the bell ring staring at the yellow notebook in front of him. It was large and stuffed. He looked as if he were contemplating something big.

"Naruto," Kakashi's voice penetrated his thinking, "if you don't leave soon you could be late to your next class."

Naruto got up and headed to the front of the class. Impulsively he handed Kakashi the notebook. "Here it's the homework." Was all he said.

A minute after Naruto left Kakashi opened up the note book to the middle and his jaw fell open.


	3. Trip to the Principal

Trip to the Principal:

A knock on the door woke Tsunade from sleeping on her desk. "Come in!" she called a little too loudly, "it's open!" To her surprise, Kakashi stepped into her slightly cluttered office. "What is it Kakashi?" she asked having no idea why Kakashi was in her office.

"Well Principle Tsunade, I received something very interesting from on of my students today and I thought I would share it with you," Kakashi reveled and handed her Naruto's yellow notebook.

"What is this?" Tsunade questioned.

"It's Naruto Uzumaki's notebook from my class." Kakashi paused before going on. "It has every single piece of work that we were going to do in class this year."

Tsunade's eyes grew a fraction bigger and she opened the note book to the middle. The handwriting was oddly neat and everything was well organized.

"What do you want me to do?" Kakashi asked curious as to what the principle would make of the situation.

"I'll have to think about it." She answered in a firm tone though was clueless as to what to do.

Kakashi made his exit as Tsunade was still entrenched in the notebook.

-

While Tsunade stared at Naruto's notebook on her desk, elsewhere, Naruto was thinking of what to do. He had just given one of his teachers a real notebook. Not the ones he kept for taking notes in class a real one that he had worked on. 'I suppose no one else will know yet I'll just keep my head down for now.'

Naruto made his way to his next class hoping to stay under the radar. He was one of the last people in the room so his normal seat was already taken. He sat down next to Kiba and put his head down. He hated sitting in the middle of the room. He took out his full math notebook and started to re-read what they were going to do in class today. It was all very boring. All of the sudden Kiba poked Naruto in the side.

"What, dog breath?" Naruto asked annoyed.

Kiba smirked and asked "What'cha reading?"

Naruto closed the notebook and calmly looked back at Kiba signature smile on his face. "Nothing, dog breath."

Kiba started to smirk even more. Then when Naruto looked out the window Kiba swiped Naruto's notebook.

Right then Mr. Yamato came in and started the class. When Naruto looked back at his desk he immediately notice that his notebook was gone. He looked over at Kiba who was rushing through it not believing what he saw.

"Kiba!" Naruto hissed in a low voice so that he didn't get in trouble. "Give that back."

Kiba looked over at him a bewildered expression on his face. "What the hell is this Naruto?" He whispered.

"It's a notebook Kiba and I would appreciate it if you gave it back, please." Naruto whispered this time his tone not as harsh.

Kiba made to give it back to Naruto but just as Naruto was about to grab it they heard the teacher say, "I think I will be taking that Mr. Iunzuka."

When Naruto heard that he practically screamed. How many times would teachers call him out today?

"It's just my notes, Mr. Yamato." Naruto said hopping that it would deter the teacher.

Yamato regarded Naruto for a moment and then said, "Do I look like I was born yesterday Mr. Uzumaki?"

Naruto sighed grabbed the notebook from Kiba and went to the front of the room. For not the first time that day everyone in the class was staring at him. He held out the notebook to Yamato and quietly said "Here it's really just the notes."

Yamato took the notebook and started leafing through it. He was stunned by what he saw. Naruto fidgeted in place for a moment before saying "Could I go get a drink of water?"

Yamato didn't answer for a moment but gave him a nod which was all Naruto needed to bolt out of the room. He quickly went down the hall hoping that no one was there. He headed to the bathroom where he washed his face off with shaking hands.

"Fuck!" he exclaimed out loud. He looked in the dirty mirror to find that his grin had slipped from his face. He put his head under the tap and let the cold water streak down his face. 'Two of my teachers know now,' he thought, 'two of them know that I'm not an average student. What am I going to do? I don't want to do any more work than I already am. I have enough to do with my after school jobs. Maybe I should call Iruka…'

"Fuck!" Naruto said again out loud. He was whipping off his face on a paper towel when he said it. He hadn't thought that anyone else would be in the bathroom. He started a little when someone came out of one of the stalls.

The brunette didn't say anything for a while just washed his hands. Naruto formed his face into an automatic smile, he hopped the guy would just leave. Naruto was about to leave himself when the guy caught his arm.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

Naruto smiled easily and said "Yeah, I'm fine."

"If you say so," the guy said thoroughly unconvinced.

Naruto broke the older boy's hold on him and turned to leave. This time the guy didn't do anything to him. He left and started back to class. Where he hopped he would just be ignored.

He stepped back into class quietly. Mr. Yamato was lecturing on something. Naruto just headed back to the dreaded seat and sat back down. He got a notebook out to look like he was doing something. He let his mind wander while Yamato explained something he had learned awhile ago.

The bell rang as class ended. Naruto stood up to leave the room with the rest of the class. He glanced at Kiba who wasn't looking at him. He glanced to Yamato he was staring at him. Naruto put his head down and was about to leave the room.

"Naruto can I talk to you for a second?" Yamato asked almost too innocently.

Naruto smiled and turned around "Sure." Though his head was reeling.

"Naruto you do know that your note book has the notes for this entire class and then some right?"

"Yup. Why is there a problem?" Naruto said not giving away anything.

"Where did you get it?" he asked suspiciously.

"Well I got the book for the class from Iruka. Then I did the course laid out there." Naruto said not dropping his smile.

"Who's Iruka?" he asked.

"Him? I thought you being my teacher would know. He's my guardian." Naruto answered smile slowly falling off his face.

"Oh," Yamato let escape.

Naruto twitched. "Can I go to my next class?"

Yamato regarded him for a minute, then nodded. Naruto left the classroom hopping noting else would happen that day. He walked quietly to Science class. He was close to one of the last ones there, but saw that his regular seat was open. Gaara was sitting in the next chair over. 'Well that explains it.' Gaara was pretty well known around school as 'the guy who randomly picks fights… and never loses' which wasn't exactly true. Gaara almost always had a reason behind the fight at least now he did. Well maybe he did but it wasn't like he was going to tell the person who's ass he kicked his reasoning.

Naruto sat down next to him and took out a notebook; then took out a pencil as well as a pen. He took a textbook out of his backpack, though it wasn't for the class. It was a collage book for physics; Naruto found it a lot more helpful than the real book for the class. Gaara looked over to him and asked "That bad a day, huh?"

"Yeah," Naruto answered rereading a bit of the textbook.

"What happened?" Gaara questioned easily not even looking at Naruto.

Naruto held up a finger still reading. After a minute he said, "I don't have enough time to tell you now but I'll tell you at lunch, 'k?"

Gaara nodded an affirmative and looked to the front of the class. It started a few seconds later. Naruto was still reading the book and was absorbed when for the third time that day the teacher called on him to do a problem. 'Fuck! This is the third time today! What is it with today?'

"I don't know the answer." He mumbled still reading the textbook.

"You're reading the textbook yet you don't know the answer to the question I'm asking?" the teacher affirmed.

"Yes." Naruto assured the teacher. The teacher looked at him funny but went on to answer his own question. Naruto just kept reading. He was in the back that class so not too many people were looking at him. Halfway through class an announcement came on, but Naruto wasn't paying attention.

Gaara hit his shoulder. "Naruto they want you in the office!" he hissed eyes still at the front but voice giving his slight worry away a little.

Naruto nodded. He put his things in his bag and walked to the door. He nodded to the teacher who was still lecturing, then slipped from the room. He walked down the halls the way he knew that he should with a large gate and a hint of a swagger. He came to the office quickly.

He stepped into the office not knowing what to expect. He looked to the secretary who pointed to a door just to the left of herself. "She would like a word with you."

Naruto nodded and knocked politely on the door. He didn't hear a response so knocked slightly louder. After a few seconds he still didn't hear anything he was just about to break down the door when a voice from the office said "Sorry! Come in! Come in!"

Naruto entered the room a little awkwardly. He had his smile on his face just like normal. 'Like always,' he thought bitterly.

"Take a seat." She commanded.

Naruto sat down where she indicated.

"I assume you know why you're here right?" Tsunade asked harshly.

Naruto pretended to smirk. "Of course I don't you haven't told me why I'm here yet."

Tsunade huffed, "Man all you kids ruin my fun!" She sighed comically, "You're here because of the two notebooks you gave to two of your teachers."

Naruto let the smile fall from his face. "So, I'm not it trouble?" he asked while thinking 'Fuck. Fuck. Fucketty. Fuck. Fuck.'

"Nope you aren't in trouble. The teachers said that the notebooks held all the things they were going to teach in class that year though. So, I'm wondering where a student with your track record got a hold of something like that."

'Are you referring to my permit record or my inattentiveness in class?' Naruto wondered in his head. "I wrote them." He said quietly out loud.

"Really?" She asked with a hint of sarcasm.

"Well I suppose if you really want to know…" Naruto hesitated pretending to be about to confess something. Then yelled, "Of course I wrote them! Why would I go to all the trouble of carrying those heavy things around if I didn't write them?"

Tsunade stared at him a minute Naruto flinched under the scrutiny.

"Fine if you don't believe me I don't even care." Naruto said exasperated. He was inwardly relived at this.

Tsunade smirked. "No way. Empty your bag."

Naruto started. "What?"

"I'm a part of the faculty and I have a reason for you to make you open your bag." Tsunade said practically cackling evilly at Naruto.

Naruto sighed, more tired than anything. "You have absolutely no probable cause as to why I should open up my bag. It's an invasion of privacy and I won't do it." Naruto stated without hesitation dropping the smile from his face.

"No probable cause you say?" Tusnade questioned.

"Yes." Naruto sighed.

"You are a student and I am the principal I can make something up." She smiled sweetly at him while her eyes guaranteed her truthfulness.

Naruto sighed again wishing that he was somewhere else. "Fine here." He plopped the bag onto her desk.

She opened it up to find quite a few note books and the physics textbook. She took out the notebooks one by one. She smiled to herself after affirming her thoughts. Giggling in glee she practically yelled, "Just as I thought! You have a complete notebook for each of your classes!"

Naruto banged his head with the side of his fist at the childish behavior being exhibited by his principal. "So what are you going to do about it?"

Tsunade sighed, forlornly "Well I was just going to pass you through those classes, but now…"

Naruto almost laughed at the turn from the childish behavior. "Why not just put me up a grade?" He said in jest.

"Hmmmmm, not a bad idea…" She mused. "Ok, tomorrow you will officially become a senior." Tsunade declared. "That also means that you will graduate at the end of the year if you pass all your classes." She affirmed.

Naruto who was still snickering a little at what he thought was a relatively funny joke froze. "What? I was just kidding."

"Too bad. Tomorrow you will be starting all senior classes. And if you didn't write those notebooks we will know very soon won't we?" Tsunade smirked thinking she was very smart indeed.

Naruto just gaped at her not knowing what to say. Eventually he came back into himself and smiled. "Can I go now?" He asked nicely, though trying to keep his face from showing his fury.

Tsunade nodded. "Just remember to come get your new schedule tomorrow."

Naruto didn't respond and left the room quickly as if he could just run away from it all. He found that when he went to the science room his class was already over. He headed to his next class slowly though not liking the thought of class at all. 'I could skip… Iruka would kill me though… Well as much as he can while in Japan…' Naruto redirected his steps to where he knew the stairs to the roof were. He headed up them then straight out the door into the nice breeze. He sat down and pulled out his ipod putting the ear buds in his ears.

He lay back and turned up the music. He put his forearm comfortably over his eyes. He stayed there until five minutes before the bell then got up stashing his ipod in his bag. He threw his bag over his shoulder while walking to the steps.

He went to his locker and got the books for his next classes and his lunch. He headed for the cafeteria, dreading the loudness of it. He went to his and Gaara's regular table. A few other juniors sat there with them including Kiba, but Naruto and Gaara sat there first.

He sat down next to Gaara not paying a whole lot of attention to anyone else. He opened his lunch and proceeded to inhale it. Gaara didn't say anything while this was going on and ate his lunch as well, at a slightly slower pace. Naruto finished his meal fairly quickly so decided that he would start talking while Gaara finished up.

"You wanted to know what was up with today, right?" Naruto asked staring blankly at the table arms crossed grin firmly plastered to his face.

Gaara nodded the affirmative.

"In Kakashi's class he made me answer one of the questions, though I protested of course. After I tried to leave but he wouldn't let me. We were doing some stupid assignment. I was staring at my notebook thinking how easy it would to just give it to him instead of rewriting it. I gave it to him on my way out." Naruto explained. Gaara glanced over at him. Naruto didn't look at him. "That's not all." He said quietly.

Gaara stared at him. "What else happened?"

"Kiba was fooling around with another one of my notebooks the next class. When he was handing it back to me Yamato spotted him and made me give it to him. In any case he looked in it. They both ended up giving them to the principal. Which was why I was called down to the principal's office."

Naruto sighed, though kept up his smile. Gaara was looking at him with concern now. "What happened with the principal?"

Naruto rubbed his forehead then said, "I'm going to be a senior tomorrow Gaara."

Gaara looked like he wanted to say something but couldn't. Naruto looked at him then his eyes begging him to do something but smile still in place.

"Crap." Gaara finally said.

"Yeah crap." Naruto affirmed.

Gaara looked at him for another good minute before he said "Are you going to be ok? I can bash some heads if you need."

Naruto looked over at Gaara eyes sincerely thanking him. "No, that's ok. I just wish things could be different. I'm going to have to call Iruka soon."

Gaara's eyes held concern as he said "If you need anything you have my number."

Naruto glanced over at Gaara. "Thanks. I'll call."

Gaara looked like he was going to say something else then the bell rang. Naruto dismissed it and left the lunchroom quickly. His last classes went off without a hitch, making the rest of the day normal for him.


	4. A Day in the Life of a Senior

A Day in the Life of a Senior:

Naruto woke the next morning from his regular dream. He was jolted awake by the beeping from his alarm clock. He hit the snooze button just like he did every morning. He put an arm over his head and tried to get back to his safe bright place that only existed in his dreams. It was gone just like every morning, but he would never stop trying to get back there. Once he was sure it was gone he got up and did the same routine he did the previous day only altered by an added sandwich with peanut butter. As well as a large water bottle filled with milk.

He grabbed his bag rearranging his face at the same time. He left the apartment locking it behind himself. He walked to school just like every morning since he started high school. He walked into the schoolyard normally. He walked into the school heading towards the office instead of his locker.

When he stepped into the office the secretary was doing something so Naruto sat down on one of the chairs. Naruto was glad that no one he knew could see him when he was in the office they might say something. The secretary finished up whatever she was doing and Naruto approached her slowly. She noticed him and asked "What can I do for you?" with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm here to get my new schedule?" Naruto questioned.

"Ok, what's your name?" She asked politely though looking at the whisker- like marks on his face.

"Naruto Uzamaki." Naruto stated twitching a little at the staring.

She ruffled around a few papers but eventually produced a paper that looked to be a schedule. "Here you are."

Naruto looked at the schedule and said a quick thanks to the secretary before picking up his bag and leaving the office.

'1st hour – A.P. Calculus – Kurenai- 504

2nd hour – A.P. Composition – Jiraiya- 702

3rd hour – A.P. Psychology- Kakashi- 405

4th hour- Senior Physical Education/Health- Gai- Gym

5th hour- A.P. Sociology- Asuma- 410

6th hour- Anatomy- Shizune- 607

7th hour- Study/Free- 302'

'Almost all my classes are A.P great just great.' Naruto thought as he walked down the hall towards his new math class. He glared at the schedule in his hand as if it would help with his predicament. He easily found the classroom. It was only a few away from the one where he had his other math class.

He glanced up at the conveniently placed clock and found that he only had a few minutes until class started. 'Late or not late? Late or not late?' Naruto contemplated. 'Well it is the first day. I suppose I should be on time today.' Naruto walked into the classroom a little hesitantly. He made sure his smile was in place then walked to the desk where he assumed the teacher was sitting.

She was good looking he noticed. 'Not that I care.' Dark brown hair fell around her face which made her red eyes stand out on her face. 'Interesting.' Naruto stood in front of the desk for a moment before giving a little cough since she seamed a little distracted with some papers on her desk.

"Yes?" She asked.

"I'm Naruto Uzamaki and I got transferred into this class today." Naruto said smiling.

The teacher nodded "Right I was informed that you would be joining us today. My name is Kurenai. Welcome to A.P calculus." Kurenai held out a book for Naruto, "This is the book for the class we have already done up to chapter 3 and a half. We will be talking about the second half of chapter 3 today. You will be expected to know the material for the exam although you don't have to turn in the old assignments."

Naruto took the book from her and smiled saying a bright, "Thank you."

Naruto moved to the back of the class a few people glancing at him not having seen him here before. He sat down putting the book on the desk. He took out an already full notebook to see how the book he had used compared to this one.

Naruto pretty much had a notebook for all the high school subjects and most of the AP ones they offered as well. He had never wanted anyone to know he was smart though. That just brought him unwanted attention. The only people that knew about his smarts were Iruka and Gaara. Gaara had found out because he saw Naruto's notebooks and asked him about it. After some hesitation on Naruto's part he had confined in the quietly probing redhead.

Iruka had found out when he adopted Naruto when he was only 5. Naruto had taught himself to read out of boredom and curiosity. Mostly because the foster families he was with for the few years Iruka didn't have him had ignored him and left him to his own devices. Not only that but reading was an escape from reality. Then when Iruka adopted him he encouraged his studies getting him books and the years when he was in collage even letting Naruto borrow his books if he wanted.

By the time Naruto was in 4th grade he was doing high school and collage level work. After a while of being one of the smartest kids in his class he was tired of the jealous looks and the beatings that came with being smart. In third grade Naruto stopped showing anyone that he was the least bit smart. He stared only getting regular grades. Iruka was a little mad for a while but eventually stopped bugging Naruto to show other people his real abilities.

Naruto looked up from his reminiscing to see that class was almost over. He looked up at the teacher seeing the problems on the board. He glanced at them for a moment before sighing finding that this wouldn't be any more of a challenge than his old classes.

Naruto put his head on the desk in front of him not even bothering to pay attention. He glanced up to the board once more to see that one of the problems was done wrong. He didn't really care figuring someone would point it out. But no one did. After a while the bell rang. Naruto was just about to leave the room when he stopped. He stared at the wrong problem for a moment before a boy with an odd ponytail came up to the front and erased the part that was bothering Naruto. He wrote in the right answer before glancing over to Naruto.

"That's how you wanted to do it right?" He questioned Naruto lightly not taking his eyes off the board.

Naruto looked at him, smile still stuck to his face, for a moment before saying, "Yeah, it would be improper to do it the other way. You wouldn't get the problem right."

The other boy nodded, "Yeah, troublesome isn't it. Apparently you and I were the only ones that noticed it."

"I suppose troublesome is a good way to explain it." Naruto stated lightly.

The other boy looked over at him. "You just transfer into the school?"

Naruto was tempted to tell him yes and be done with the subject. "No the principal moved me up a grade." He ended up saying in full honesty.

The boy snorted. "Troublesome. My name's Shikamaru."

Naruto was fairly curious and amused by Shikamaru's reaction. But all he said was "My name's Naruto. You don't by any chance have A.P. Comp next hour do you?"

Shikamaru shook his head no and Naruto took off down the hall waving goodbye to Shikamaru saying "I suppose I'll see you tomorrow then."

Naruto walked into the next class in slightly better spirits from meeting Shikamaru. He looked around at who would be his classmates for the rest of the semester. He wasn't surprised to see that the class was relatively small and that it mostly consisted of girls and nerdy looking people with the once in a while normal person mixed in. He glanced to the front of the class to see the teacher sitting at his desk with a comical expression on his face looking at something on his computer. 'Just what I need,' thought Naruto, 'a weird teacher.'

Nonetheless Naruto walked to the desk smile in place and said, "Excuse me," a bit louder than was necessary. The teacher looked up.

"Hi my name's Naruto Uzamaki and I was just transferred into this class." Naruto announced in a normal tone of voice to the teacher.

The teacher looked at him for a moment before pulling out a book and handing it to him saying, "I'm Jiraiya just Jiraiya mind you no Mr. that makes me feel old which I'm not. Oh and welcome to A.P comp. I put all the assignments on the website."

Naruto nodded his thanks to him and taking his new book walked to the back of the class. A few of his new classmates looked at him funny but Naruto tried to ignore them. At the back of the class Naruto sat down next to the most normal person he could find from just appearances. He was pale with black hair that stuck up in the back. He had his head down so those were the only things he could see.

Naruto looked at the book he was holding for the first time. It was a regular A.P book large and bulky though it was not one of the ones Naruto was well acquainted with. He looked at the publish date and found that it was newer than most of the books he used. He flipped through the book to see that there wasn't really anything different about this book compared to the one he had.

He looked up from his skimming to see that "just Jiraiya" was explaining a writing device that he had already implemented quite a few times. He took out one of his random notebooks and pretended to be taking notes while actually just doodling for the rest of class. Once the bell rang and Jiraiya dismissed the class Naruto stood up to leave.

"Do you think it's wise to not pay attention on the first day of class?" Asked the guy he was sitting next to in an offhanded way, the voice coming from low to the ground because he was packing up his bag.

Naruto laughed a little at that and said "Yeah, bastard I do think it's a good idea."

"Well if you need homework help don't come ask me idiot." The other guy said taking the bait.

"Wouldn't dream of it bastard." Naruto exclaimed with such a childish tone of voice the other guy turned towards him a little bit, as if he hadn't heard him right.

Naruto just picked up his bag keeping the smile on his face. He walked out of the classroom and sighed at the new thought he just had. 'If that guy has friends and he wants revenge for my name-calling I might have a problem.' And with that pleasant thought Naruto proceeded to his next class.

He walked into the room and didn't look at the class. He walked to the back and placed his bag in his regular seat; then went back up to the front of the class to wait for the continuously-late Kakashi. Five minutes into class Kakashi showed up.

Naruto waited for him to put the book down before he said, "I need the book, the old assignments and a new school."

Kakashi seamed a bit amused by his assessment, "Well the first two I can do for you but as for the last one maybe you should ask Iruka about that."

Naruto glared at him for a moment.

"I mean I'm sure you could get into a very good private school, you know if you actually tried." Kakashi said lightly as if everyone knew that. He held out a book with a sticky note on it for Naruto.

Naruto grudgingly took it and walked back to his seat. He noticed that most people seamed to not have really noticed the odd exchange at the front of the class. He sat down and started to look at the book he had been handed, finding a few new things Psychology being something that changes relatively often. He began reading some of the things that he didn't know from the beginning of a random chapter.

"Not paying attention again I see."

Naruto started a little at the voice coming from slightly above him. He hadn't even noticed the older boy from the last class. He looked up to see that he was leaning over him. He was a little taller than Naruto probably around 5' 10". He had black hair that was standing up seemingly on it's own in the back making it look like a duck's butt to Naruto. He also had the blackest eyes that Naruto had seen which were right now boring into his face.

Naruto suppressed a sigh and asked, "Nope I'm not. What's it to ya?"

"Well seeing as we're doing a group project together I suppose now it is my business." He answered in a monotone.

Naruto allowed his head fall to the table and started to lightly bang it against the desk. After doing that for several seconds he looked back up again and saw the guy still standing there. Mentally cursing Kakashi he stood up and grabbed his bag and book.

"So where to?" Naruto questioned the boy he was now standing next to.

"The front apparently we're working with Sakura Haruno as well." The guy said gesturing lightly to the front of the room.

Naruto walked to the front fidgeting a little and sat down next two girls one with pink hair and one with blonde hair. They both immediately started to glare at him. He was about to ask why when the girl with the blonde hair practically yelled at him.

"I was saving that seat for Sasuke!"

Then the girl with pink hair yelled, "What are you talking about pig?! I was the one saving the seat for Sasuke!"

Naruto glanced up at the guy with black hair to see his reaction to these statements. He just stood there with a blank face except for the very slight clenching of his jaw. Naruto returned his vision to the two girls he was sitting between and started to move from where he was sitting only to feel a hard hand on his shoulder keeping him sitting in his chair. He glared up at the older boy but said nothing, knowing it would only cause him problems. Though he really wanted to jerk away from the hand holding him in place.

Kakashi who was only a few feet from where the two girls were still fighting finally intervened and firmly stated, "Ino the rest of your group is in the back of the room, please go so that you can get started."

Once Ino moved to the back of the room Sasuke removed his hand from Naruto's shoulder and sat down were Ino was just sitting. Naruto breathed a sigh of relief at the hard grip leaving him. Sasuke glanced over at him sharply. Naruto just put his grin on his face and stared at Kakashi.

"Ok now that everyone is in their groups for this project I will explain it to you all. For this project you must come up with a psychological profile test. It must be an accurate test. It cannot have been done by anyone you saw on TV or one you found on the internet. I hope that some of you can get original with this assignment. Those are the only instructions. I hope you have fun with it!" Kakashi announced to the class.

A lot of people started talking about what they were thinking immediately. Some even saying how this was an easy assignment. One girl in the second row raised her hand though. Kakashi pointed her and she asked,

"How much is this assignment worth?"

Kakashi's eye practically shined, "Oh, did I forget to mention? It's worth thirty percent of your final grade. The other seventy percent going to your class work, homework, quizzes, tests, and final."

The pink hair Naruto now knew as Sakura and even Sasuke turned towards Naruto since he was sitting in the middle. They looked at each other for a moment before Sakura asked,

"So what do you guys think?"

Naruto smiled and was going to suggest something absurd when Sakura continued unexpectedly,

"...because I was thinking something like profiling questions. But I'm not really sure what do you think Sasuke?"

Naruto actually frowned a little at the idea but didn't say anything. He waited for the other boy to respond to Sakura.

"I defiantly think we should go with a written test. So, perhaps with more original questions?" Sasuke prompted Sakura.

Naruto just nodded his head at the two older students. He got a notebook out and started on his own idea for the assignment. It was a video game where based on things you picked and decisions you made in the game you would get profiled into a specific place. There you would get told what type of person you were.

Naruto looked up every once in a while to make sure the other two were still doing alright without him. Finally when it was almost the end of class Sakura asked,

"So Naruto what do you think?"

Naruto grinned then looked her straight in the eye and said, "Do what you want I don't care. If you give me work I'll complete it alright?"

Sakura was surprised at the almost harshness in Naruto's voice that was almost concealed. Sasuke looked at him a little oddly then said,

"You better do some of the work idiot because you might not care but I do."

Naruto nodded absently and waited for the bell to ring.

Naruto walked down the hall bag slung over his shoulder (grin firmly plastered to his face) heading to his locker. When he got to his locker he deftly did the combination and grabbed out his lunch. Then stuffed the books from his other classes in there but drew out one of his more familiar notebooks having only written it last year. He redid his lock and opened the notebook. It was perfectly ok for stupid Naruto to have to study during lunch. He started to read about it while walking towards the cafeteria.

When he got to the noisy place intended for people to eat their lunches at he glanced around wondering where he should sit. He didn't really want to sit with the people he normally sat with because they would ask him a bunch of weird questions he didn't want to answer. Though Naruto did want to see Gaara. 'What should I do?' He sighed.

He looked at the table he usually sat at hoping that Gaara wasn't already there. Gaara wasn't he would probably be there pretty soon though. Naruto stood in the door of the cafeteria for several more seconds before heading towards an empty table. It was pretty far from his old table and he hoped that no one from over there would notice him. Naruto sat down and opened his lunch he took out the sandwich he packed last night and started to eat it keeping one eye on the door for Gaara and reading some things from his notebook to refresh his memory.

After about one minute of sitting he wondered why the table he was sitting at was empty he didn't think it was usually. Most of the time almost all of the tables would be filled. He glanced around the entire cafeteria to see which group was missing today and came to the conclusion it was probably what he referred to as the 'multiple sport muscle heads'. 'Great. I pick the ONE table where I could probably get beat up for just sitting.'

Naruto started to pack up his things to move to a less hazardous table. Suddenly he felt a hand grab some of his hair to force it onto the table. Naruto let his head slam into the table unhindered only moving so that it would be his cheek to ketch the fall. Naruto made himself breath through his nose calmly not particularly liking the position he was in.

"Well what do we have here?" The one who held him asked sarcastically. "Did you think you were going to take our table? We sit here everyday and well we don't particularly like when people try to take things that are ours."

Naruto forced himself to speak in a controlled way, wanting nothing more than to lash out on the one who held him to the table. "I understand I was just going to move when you guys got here."

The other guys that were with him filed around the table leaving him no escape routes that way. "Oh, but that hurts since you were sitting here alone we thought that maybe you wanted to be friends with us."

Naruto sighed. He had hoped that they would just let him go if he explained that he would leave. "Oh, yeah I'd like to be friends. My name's Naruto. What are your names?" Naruto asked calmly playing the guy's sick little game.

The guy holding Naruto seamed relatively surprised that Naruto was so calm. "Yeah well we don't want to be friends with you. Do we guys?"

There were several responses from the other guys mostly in agreement with the guy that held Naruto. "Oh, why don't you just let the poor guy go Ralf? He said that he'd leave."

"No way," said Ralf, "If we just let him go everyone will try to take our table."

Naruto just sat there in silence face still shoved into the table. He was getting a little bit nervous because although he was trained in Karate he didn't want to try to fight a lot of guys at school. He was already on thin ice with the principal as it was. He was feeling really helpless. Suddenly he flashed back.

****Flashback*****

A much younger Naruto is on the ground. Several men are hovering above him. Suddenly one grabs him and pins his small body to the ground. He is crying and telling them to let him go. Not knowing who they are or what their going to do. A few seconds later one of the other men produces a tool used for tattooing. He turns it on it makes a buzzing sound.

Naruto starts screaming even louder begging for his parents to come help him. The man starts to tattoo an intricate pattern on his little white tummy. It starts to bleed as soon as he starts as his skin is very soft being he is only one. He screams and cries while they do it. He screams for the men to stop. Eventually he passes out.

****End Flashback****

When Naruto comes back to himself the first thing he realizes is he is crying. Then he opens his eyes to see that he is no longer in the cafeteria but in the hall. He looks up and finds that his head is on Gaara's lap and the older boy's hands are soothingly petting his head.

"Hey Gaara," Naruto says when he notices that Gaara is staring off into space.

Gaara blinked and removed his hands from Naruto's hair.

"I told you to call me." Gaara said in a monotone though really hurt.

"I'm sorry Gaara. I didn't know that they were going to gang up on me if I sat there. Thanks for getting me out of there." Naruto answered in a sincere, quite voice.

Gaara sighed. "The flashbacks are getting worse again aren't they?" He asked.

Naruto sat up slowly and looked away. "Yeah." He divulged shortly.

Gaara sighed again.

Naruto turned back to him remembering that something he should ask Gaara. "How is everything at home?"

Gaara almost smiled. "It's good. I'm getting along with Tem and Kankuro right now. It's a lot better now that Temari's eighteen we have our own apartment and no nosy foster parents."

Naruto smiled softly. "That's great."

"Yeah," Gaara admitted. "I actually feel that it's all over now you know? Well at least the stuff with Father."

Naruto nodded. The bell rang so they both got to their feet. "I'll see you later 'K Gaara?"

Gaara nodded to him and they both headed in different directions. Naruto headed down the hall to the gym for his senior gym class. He stepped into the locker room and wondered what how he should go about getting a gym uniform. Then he remembered how he had suggested one day to his friends to put a usable extra one in a locker where they all knew the combination so that they would always have one. 'Wow how convenient.'

He went over to the specified locker and did the combo. It unlocked and he took out the shirt and sweat pants sniffing them to make sure they were clean. Fortunately for him they were. He glanced around at the few other boys that were changing self consciously. Hoping no one would see his out of character behavior.

He took off his sweater then quickly started to unbutton his shirt. He soon found himself only in his pants and undershirt. He turned his back to the wall and quickly took off the undershirt putting the gym shirt on just as fast. He took off his shoes pulling off his pants and replaced them with the shorts. He put his shoes back on and glanced around to see if the other guys were done yet or not.

He walked through the rest of the locker room and into the gym soon after. As he walked into the gym he could feel eyes on him as though the older boys were sizing him up. He looked around the gym for the teacher. But he couldn't find him so he decided to wait by the door until he got there.

A few of the other boys glanced his way but no one approached him. As the bell rang the teacher walked into the room. Naruto mentally groaned at his attire. He was wearing a green spandex suit. 'Great more weirdness.'

Naruto walked up to him right as he entered and asked,

"Are you Mr. Gai?"

He looked over then gave his full attention to Naruto, "Why yes I am!"

"I'm in your class from now on. My name's Naruto Uzamaki." Naruto said smile planted to his face.

Gai seamed to brighten even more if possible when he heard this. "Oh, this is great!" He exclaimed loudly. Then he grabbed Naruto's shoulders and dragged him towards the rest of the class.

Naruto's eyes widened at what the teacher was now doing to him. He didn't even have time to react before he was being pulled across the gym. Naruto tried to get loose of the teacher gently but couldn't. Starting to panic at the tight hold Naruto wrenched himself from Gai pushing him down in the process. At this point several of the other students in the class were openly staring at them.

Naruto smiled rubbing the back of his head. "Sorry Mr. Gai I must have tripped."

Gai stood up and smiled going into the 'nice guy' pose. "That is alright my youthful student it was an accident."

Naruto mentally breathed a sigh of relief. He really didn't want anymore flashbacks that day. As he was lost in his own thoughts about the day Gai had already told the class what they were going to be doing that day. When Naruto started to pay attention again he found that they were going to be play soccer today out on the soccer field. Naruto followed his classmates outside to the soccer field.

They ran around the field a few times to get warmed up. During this time Naruto allowed himself to retreat into his mind just running at a steady pace. It wasn't hard for him he kept himself in good physical condition all of the time. He almost didn't register that it was time to stop.

They played a soccer scrimmage after that. Naruto played with faked enthusiasm. He yelled for passes and ended up making some good plays. After class when they were walking back into the school. Three of the other guys in the class approached him.

One looked oddly a lot like the gym teacher and had huge eyebrows. 'Weird eyebrows…' The next had hair long enough to be a girls and bandages over his forehead, he looked oddly familiar. The last had sunglasses on and a sweatshirt with a particularly high collar even though it wasn't really that cold out yet.

Naruto turned to face them as they went into the gym. The one with the huge eyebrows was talking about him rather loudly.

"We should defiantly talk to him! His youth and energy on the soccer field was great! Even though it was only his first day!"

"I don't know Lee I think he might be a little high maintenance…" said the one with long hair.

The one with sunglasses spoke up then saying, "I think we should talk to him."

Both of the other boys looked surprised.

"Well if you say so Shino." The one with long hair finally agreed.

Naruto hearing the whole conversation was ready for them when they approached him. He put on an easier smile instead of a full out grin and tried not to glance towards them before they approached him.

"Hey." The one with long hair greeted.

"Hey." Naruto responded.

"That was a good game wasn't it?"

"Yeah it was pretty good."

"So anyways my friends and I wanted to introduce ourselves to you since your new in the class and don't seam to know anyone. I'm Neji. The loud one's Lee and the guy with the sunglasses is Shino."

"We hope that your youth will blossom in this Senior gym class with us!" yelled Lee.

Naruto smiled a little more at the antics. "I'm Naruto. Thanks I don't seam to really know anyone in this class."

"Did you ever try out for the soccer team?" asked Shino.

Naruto let a little of the surprise slip onto his face from the question. "No, I haven't."

Shino nodded as if he had just figured out something.

"You should defiantly have Naruto! Your youthfulness and sportsmanship on the field was inspiring!" Lee exclaimed at this.

Naruto glanced over to the side not knowing whether to be embarrassed or yell back. Instead of doing either he said, "Thanks Lee you were doing good too."

When Naruto and the guys got back to the locker rooms Naruto tried to detach himself from the other boys. He unlocked his locker slowly. He didn't take a shower like some of the other boys. He took off his shoes slowly whishing that there weren't so many people around. He took off his shorts and replaced them with his dress pants slowly doing the belt. At this point most of the boys had already finished, which Naruto was grateful for. He quickly took off his long sleeved t-shirt and put on his undershirt. Then quickly buttoned up the dress shirt and pulled the sweater over his head.

Right as he was leaving the locker room Naruto suddenly gripped his head. An intense pain flooded through his system before he flashbacked for the second time that day.

****Flashback****

A four year old Naruto looks up to the angry eyes of his foster father. He was sitting on his bed with a short chapter book, reading quietly. The big man was really close now; Naruto could smell the alcohol on his breath. Naruto curled up knowing what was coming next.

The large man roughly dragged Naruto off the bed. Naruto just curled up knowing he couldn't get away. The man slapped Naruto's face; then pulled him over his knee hitting him hard on the bottom. After he hit him several times he grabbed at Naruto's crotch. Naruto whimpered pitifully at this. He just pressed his hand against Naruto more.

Naruto wasn't startled when the man took off his clothes. He was frightened when the man undid his own pants and threw them across the room. He had never done that before. Then the man shoved him to the ground.

Naruto started sobbing incoherently, whimpering painfully. He didn't cry out though he knew that if he did it would make it worse. That day though, it was horrible. After thrusting into Naruto for what seamed to be forever he finally finished and pulled out.

Naruto still sobbing and whimpering didn't move. He hurt all over. 'What did I do?' He thought before he finally passed out from exhaustion.

****End Flashback****

Naruto woke up from the flashback breathing hard. He was on the hall floor in the fetal position. He sat up and found that no one seamed to have noticed him during his little episode. 'How unlikely.' Naruto thought still grateful that no one seamed to have seen him.

He stood up slowly blatantly aware of how his head felt as if it were going to split in two. He walked slowly to Sociology hoping that it would be a normal class. He easily found the classroom and tested the door knob quietly. It was open so Naruto opened the door as silently as he could and seeing the teacher lecturing headed to one of the spare seats in the back of the class. Naruto took out his note taking notebook and started to write down what the teacher had written on the board adding his own notes every so often.

Class concluded right after the teacher stopped lecturing. By which time Naruto was having a hard time finding things to take notes on. After the bell rang and the teacher dismissed the class Naruto walked to the front where his new teacher was at his desk.

Naruto smiled at him then said, "Hello I'm Naruto Uzamaki and I just transferred into your class today."

The teacher gave him his full attention and pointedly said, "Oh, I was wondering who you were when you came in late."

Naruto did a half hearted attempt at a chuckle. "Sorry about that I don't make a habit of showing up late… It just happens sometimes."

"I guess since it's your first day I can give you some leeway. My name's Asuma."

"Ah, well did the principal inform you I was going to be in the class?" Naruto asked unsure after the comment about wondering who he was.

Asuma nodded saying, "I think so, said you were really smart or something."

Naruto fidgeted a little. "Ea she's just an old bat."

Asuma got out a book and handed it to Naruto saying, "There's a note on the inside cover that has the assignments, as soon as you get them done give them to me. Now get to your next class."

Naruto found the anatomy room with little difficulty and walked in. The class wasn't big he noticed. At the front the teacher was grading papers at her desk. He glanced to the clock to see that he probably had enough time before class started to introduce himself.

"Mrs. Shizune?" Naruto questioned the teacher.

"One second." She answered finishing the paper she was grading. Then she looked up at him.

"I'm Naruto Uzamaki. I just got transferred into your class." Naruto said holding out his hand for her to shake.

She nodded at him but didn't return the gesture. Which Naruto was actually relatively grateful for he didn't know how he would react to any more human contact. He just let his arm drop as she started to speak. "I'm Shizune and this is Anatomy." She grabbed a book off of her desk and gave it to him. "You can ask one of the other students for the assignments. I really hope you're as smart as Tsunade seams to think you are because to pass this class you have to be."

Naruto fake smiled and took the book saying, "I don't like this situation any more than you do."

Naruto walked to the back of the class and took a look at the inside of the book. It was all the basic systems and functions of the body. He actually had the same textbook in an older version back at his apartment. 'Great this is going to be about the most boring class I could possibly be in.'

He looked to the front where Shizune was explaining a simple system and lay his head down on the table. Naruto just felt so tired. He knew he should probably at least make it look like he was paying attention but he was just so exhausted. Naruto left his eyes open but allowed his mind to slip away a little.

Naruto heard the bell ring from far away. It jolted him from his subconscious. He blinked repeatedly because it was hard to see after almost going to sleep with his eyes open. He rubbed his face a few times then picked up his bag and left grin firmly on his face.

He walked slowly to his study class knowing he had a lot of work that he would have to do. Even if it was something he already studied that didn't mean he wanted to do it. Naruto walked into the classroom and went to the back. He put down his bag and opened it taking out his Calc book. He looked at the questions he was supposed to be doing and pulled out a blank notebook he used when he needed to eventually rip out the assignment.

He worked on it quickly doing one problem after another occasionally checking the back to see if he was getting them right. After about a half hour Naruto stopped and decided to do another subject bored out of his skull from the math. He did the psychology work he missed next finishing it just as the bell was ringing.

Naruto stuffed his bag with his books and took off towards his locker. He got there and saw that Gaara was there waiting for him which he did occasionally when he wanted to talk to Naruto.

"_Ne Gaara-chan!_" Naruto yelled knowing it would get to the stoic redhead. It was also a cue to speak in Japanese which Naruto was fluent in and Gaara was mostly fluent in.

When Naruto got close enough that Gaara didn't have to yell he responded, "Hey Naru-chan."

"_Oh, no fair Gaara-chan!"_ Naruto pouted letting himself show some real emotion around his best friend.

"_Naruto I want you to come live with me and my family for a while."_ Gaara stated knowing Naruto wanted to find out why he was going to talk to him.

Naruto looked over at him with serious eyes. _"I don't know when Iruka is going to be back. His grandma is really sick and he won't want to abandon his students."_

"_Exactly why I want you to come over for a while."_ Gaara responded.

"_If it isn't too much trouble and you think your siblings won't mind." _Naruto said. Not really wanting to be alone with the flashbacks acting up.

"_Naruto you're my best friend I'm sure they will be glad to house you for a while."_ Gaara deadpanned.

"_Heehee I guess you're right. I am awesome aren't I?"_ Naruto laughed at Gaara's deadpan.

"_Come on if we hurry Kankuro will give us a ride."_

Naruto got his stuff and hurried after Gaara happier than he had been in quite a while.

AN- hello! I am so sorry this took so long to do but it was being mean. I also can't find a beta reader so if anyone reads this and sees any blatant mistakes please tell me. Oh and if you could recommend one even better! Anyways as always if you want to figure out what the heck is going on keep reading. It will be explained soon. Oh, yeah and I'm eliminating the chapter named 'The Project' at least for now. This chapter is like more than half the story… I thought about making it shorter but decided not to. I enjoy reviews!


	5. Gaara Lays Out a Life

Gaara lays out a life

"Temari, Kankuro are you sure I can stay?" Naruto asked for the up tenth time.

"Yes Naruto for the last time we're sure. We want you around. We didn't even know that Gaara had a friend until now." Temari said warmly.

Naruto sat down on the couch in the main living space having finished putting his things in Gaara's room, since he would be rooming with him while living with the Sabaku's.

"What? Gaara never explained everything to you guys?" Naruto asked.

Kankuro came into the room and sat down next to his sister on the love seat across from Naruto. "Yeah, it was kinda weird actually he just turned over a new leaf and started talking to us more."

"Hm, I know what happened but Gaara really should have told you guys about it. I wonder why he hasn't yet." Naruto mused out loud.

Gaara walked into the room at the end of Naruto's sentence so asked, "What should I have told them about?"

Naruto turned to stare unflinchingly at him standing in the door. "7th grade."

Gaara looked away from Naruto almost shamefully. "I was going to tell them about it but it never seamed to be the right time…"

"Tut tut Gaara-chan. You should have told them a long time ago." Naruto gently reprimanded him.

Gaara kept looking away for a little bit. Then he moved and sat down on the couch next to Naruto. Gaara rubbed a hand across his face and stayed silent for a few moments. "Do you guys have time now for me to tell you about it?"

Both Temari and Kankuro nodded having been watching Naruto and Gaara's exchange intently.

"Promise not to interrupt until I'm done?" Gaara asked giving Naruto a pointed look.

All three nodded and settled back for his story.

"Well it all started with Mom dying when she had me. Even though now I know that was not my fault. …" Gaara struggled with the next word. "F- fa - Takeo (1) never really did forgive me. He thought it was my fault that she died. I –I thought it was my fault she died. He hated me.

He told me that he didn't love me and that no one ever would. When I was eight Takeo found someone who would tattoo me and he got the Kanji for love on my forehead. This was so that I would always remember that he didn't love me and no one ever would. He kept me separate from the two of you most of the time and told you not to like me. You guys mostly ignored me when we were little. I don't blame you if my caretaker told me not to like another kid I would have too.

Do you remember how he always took me on his business trips? Well on those he would have me carry drugs through security. No one ever suspected me I was just a little kid. In any case he beat me a lot on those trips whenever something went slightly off. And whenever I did something he considered 'bad' at home. Sometimes you guys would try to help me but you soon learned when you did it would only make it worse for me. Th-thank you for trying to make him stop. I r-really am grateful for that. As you know when I was 8 he got caught. I told the police everything. I just wanted the beatings to stop.

I testified against him in court and guys he isn't just there for drug trafficking I told them about the beating he's in there forever. The court ruled in my favor for all charges.

Even though he was going away forever I still thought the way he taught me to. I was convinced that you guys didn't love me. I hated you guys. I started to blame you for everything. In sixth grade a few boys tried to beat me up. It was like something in me snapped in that fight I just kept hitting them. I sent them all to the hospital. After that I started to pick my own fights. The high I felt after that made me feel good. I felt like I had a purpose. I couldn't stop. And no one else could stop me.

One day I decided to pick a fight with Naruto. Naruto told me repeatedly that he didn't want to fight me. I threw a punch at him in the school yard. It was only then that Naruto started to beat me up. But when I was on the ground and Naruto was going to hit me across the jaw I flinched away remembering all the times I had taken beatings. Naruto didn't hit me… He just lowered his hand saying 'you too huh?' I looked up at him- I-I felt like I was about to cry. He held out his hand and said 'Come on I'm gonna help you.' Naruto literally taught me about Love."

Gaara broke down then something his brother and sister hadn't seen in years. He was crying over everything he had just said. Gaara tried not to but all the memories just came rushing back.

Naruto seeing that Gaara's siblings didn't know what to do. Got up and walked over to him sitting down next to him. He carefully put his arms around Gaara's shaking body. Then looked pointedly at Temari and Kankuro who were just looking on in stunned silence. After a second Temari got up and sat down next to Gaara rubbing his back gently. Naruto let Gaara's shaking shoulders go and Gaara hesitantly wrapped his arms around Temari.

Temari allowed it and kept rubbing his back. Saying soothing words and letting her head fall onto the top of his. Naruto backed away a little from the two of them and stood up. He looked at Kankuro again as if silently urging him to join in. Hesitantly Kankuro stood and walked over to where they were sitting. He sat down next to them.

Naruto left the room not wanting to intrude on their family. He went into Gaara's room and got out a book he brought to read. Smiling lightly at his friend's little confession.

A/N – Yay! You know about Gaara! I think I'm going to have a time skip soon so all the characters actually know each other. Maybe after next chapter… Hmm well that be all!


	6. The Project

As the three seniors waited for the bus Sakura asked "How far away do you live, Naruto?"

"Hm, I don't know 2 or 3 miles. I don't normally take the bus. Most of the time I walk." Naruto said his façade in place.

"You walk that far every day?" Sakura said surprised.

Sasuke was also surprised that he walked that far everyday but didn't say anything.

"Yeah, it's no biggie I just don't want to pay for the bus every day." Naruto said still smiling.

Sakura then tried for several minutes to get Sasuke to pay attention to her. After several failed tries, she turned away from the raven haired boy. The bus then arrived so the three got onto the bus. They stayed close to each other on the bus so that they would know when to get off. After only 3 stops Naruto stood up to pull the cord so that the three high school students could get off at the next stop.

A few minutes later the three got off the bus. Naruto pointed in the direction of his apartment complex and gestured for the others to fallow. They walked a few blocks, and then Naruto took out a key to open up the outside door. They then went up several flights of steps as Naruto apologized about the broken elevator.

Naruto got out his keys to open his apartment. He slightly opened the door to see how messy it was. 'It could be worse,' Naruto thought. He opened the door to his small apartment.

"Could you two possibly wait 2 more minutes in this hall for me to spruce up a bit?" Naruto asked truly embarrassed at how messy his apartment was.

He quickly ran around picking up all his clothes and throwing them into his bedroom. He then gathered all the trash from the floor and stuffed it into a trash bag he had gotten from the kitchen. 'Good enough.' Naruto thought.

Naruto then went back to his guests.

"Come on in! It's still a little messy but just deal with it ok?" Naruto said with a fake cheery voice. "Make yourselves at home!" Naruto called getting a few clean glasses and filled them with water. He put them on the not very clean coffee table.

The two older high school students walked into his apartment. Sasuke looked around and noticed how small it was and knew he probably lived alone. 'How interesting. He might be a lot more like me than I originally thought.'

Naruto then asked "Do either of you need to use the phone?"

Both shook their heads. Sakura was a little stunned at the very small apartment Naruto lived in seemingly alone. Sasuke just didn't talk that much.

"Ok, now that the pleasantries are out of the way. Let's get started." Naruto said pretending to be exited. Naruto got one of his favorite scrolls from his room and returned to the others.

"This is my favorite Japanese myth," Naruto explained, "It has a small speech at the end that every Japanese person knows by the age of about 10."

Sasuke looked at him "Um, maybe something more formal?" He half said half asked.

"Hm, maybe I have something more formal . . ." Naruto mumbled. He got up and went back to his room. He then thought of the perfect thing. He got it down and went back into the other room.

"I've got the perfect thing!" He said excitedly only having to pretend a little bit.

"What?" asked Sakura.

"It's the speech that the head of the family always recites at the start of the New Year," Naruto said, "January, 1st." Naruto then clarified.

Sasuke was impressed, but wasn't about to tell that to this weirdo. "I guess that would do." He said nodding slightly.

Sakura agreed with Sasuke.

"I guess I'll have to translate it then." Naruto said knowing that it was going to take forever to translate to English. "Do either of you know Chinese or Korean possibly?" Naruto asked a little too hopefully.

"No." Sasuke said bluntly.

"No, sorry." Sakura said with a bit more compassion.

Naruto groaned but said "I guess I'll translate it. It's gonna take me a few days though."

Sasuke took some initiative and said "So, who's going to recite what?"

"I'd prefer to only do the English stuff if that's ok." Sakura said a little ashamed at herself for not wanting to do more.

"I have to translate it!" Naruto said loudly, "That's the hardest part you know."

"I guess I'll do the Japanese. But Naruto you will have to help me with the pronunciations." Sasuke said a little annoyed that he had to ask this dope for help.

"Oh, yeah sorry guys but if we have to show our project on October 10th I won't be able to come." Naruto suddenly realized so he said it. He didn't give an explanation and glared at the other two daring them to ask why. Neither of them did, just like everyone else. 'Does anyone other than Iruka care about me?' Naruto thought suddenly. A wave of sadness came over the blonde unnoticed by the other two in the room.

"Ok, when should I come over?" Naruto asked still sad, but trying to keep up his façade.

Sasuke looked at him funny. 'Why does he want to come to my house?'

"If I'm going to help you with the Japanese were going to need to go somewhere. Duh." Naruto said pretending to be playfully annoyed.

Sasuke got over the other boy basically inviting himself over to his house. "How about Saturday at one?"

"No can do. Have to work." Naruto said un jokingly. "Actually I really should go to today's job in just a little bit." He said looking at a clock on the wall.

"How about you come over when you can then, you know within reason." Sasuke then said not wanting to screw around trying to find a good time.

"I don't know where your house is you teme." Naruto said annoyed not noticing the Japanese swear word.

"Hn? I'll give you a map to get to my house at school tomorrow. What the heck did you call me?" Sasuke said a little confused.

Naruto looked at him funny, "Are you deaf or something? I called you a bastard!"

Sasuke just looked at him "Uh, ok dope."

Sakura was pouting slightly due to the boys not including her in the conversation.

Naruto suddenly noticed the clock "Sorry to be so pushy but I have to go like right now to get to my job."

The other two looked at him and his huge fake smile.

"I hope you can get home from here by yourselves. I guess if you can't you can sleep on my coach, but I would rather you didn't."

Sasuke and Sakura looked at him stunned at all he said. They then got up and fallowed Naruto to the door.

"Bye! See you at school!" Naruto yelled at his exiting guests.

Sakura waved and Sasuke gave him the benefit of a slight nod.

Once they were out of sight, Naruto started frantically running around. He was going to his favorite job today he was working as a lifeguard at a local pool. It was for an adult swim team so most of the time he was able to do laps with them or homework. Though when he did homework he looked up every two minutes on the dot.

When Naruto was in his swimsuit and had his bag of stuff he ran out the door. He made it to the bus just in time. After four stops he got off and started running towards the pool. He got there right on time. He punched in and stuffed his shoes and shirt into his locker; then went into the pool room. The adult swimmers were about to get into the pool. The lifeguard from the last shift got up once he saw Naruto.

Naruto fake smiled at him and nodded at him. He sat down and started to read his Anatomy book. It was quite interesting. He looked up every two minutes precisely to make sure everything was fine. After the adult swimmers were done with their workout they got out of the water. Naruto took this as his cue to start to clean up the pool deck. Once that was done, he took out the lane lines. He then locked up the entrances and the locker room doors that lead to the pool. He waited outside the locker rooms on the outside doing some homework. He listened to see if everyone was out when he was satisfied he locked up and put the key on its hook. He then punched out.

Naruto left the pool making sure that the door locked behind him. He went to the bus stop to wait. The bus came after a few minutes. It was a slightly longer ride to his stop from here so Naruto wrote one of the essays he missed from Language Arts. Once he got to his stop he got off. He walked to his apartment building and unlocked the door. He went in and took the long trek to his apartment. He unlocked the door and noticed a letter had been shoved under his door.

He closed the door then picked up the letter. It didn't say anything on the front. He opened up the letter wondering who would go to the trouble to write _him_ of all people. Inside there was a map and a note in the envelope. The note said:

'Naruto,

I made this so that you can get to my house, didn't want to give you it with Sakura around. Thanks for offering to have the meeting here. I really don't want those stupid girls fallowing me everywhere.

-Sasuke'

Naruto smiled a little at this, no one had ever gone out of their way like this to thank him. Naruto looked at the map and saw that Sasuke lived only about two miles from him. Naruto put the letter into his backpack so that he could go there after school sometime.

Naruto then went into the kitchen and made himself some rice and chicken. It was only then did he realize that he was really hungry. He ate everything he made washing it down with more milk. He took a shower and went to bed, glad that the day was finally over.


	7. Mirages, Dreams and Confessions oh my!

Naruto woke the next morning to his alarm clock beeping; then went through his normal morning routine. He grabbed a roll and his bag and left his apartment locking the door behind him. He walked to school like he did every day.

He went through the motions for his classes; almost not bothering to keep up his façade. But he did it unconsciously. He was able to not talk to anyone for his first few classes only having to look the part of an annoying, happy teenager.

Naruto even decided not to go to the lunch room that day. He avoided everyone in the halls and if a teacher came his way he would just make it look like he was supposed to be there. He ate his lunch as he walked through the empty halls of the high school.

He walked to his History class after he heard the bell. He really didn't want to talk to anyone, but knew if he went into this class he would be forced too. The groups would probably have in-class work time. He knew he couldn't skip, so he sighed but entered the room. He was the first one there. He walked to the back and sat down in his regular seat. He took out his IPod and blasted the music into his ears. He really didn't want to be there. Naruto didn't realize that class was even started until someone hit him on the head.

He looked up at them not wanting to know what he had done to deserve the slap he had just received. He saw Sakura and Sasuke above him looking down at him lips moving he couldn't hear what they said because of his music. He very reluctantly took the earpieces out of his ears. He tried to smile up at them but it didn't work.

They were talking about the project he realized and were asking him a bunch of questions. He didn't respond due to the headache they had given him. Suddenly he couldn't take it anymore.

"Shut the FUCK up!" Naruto yelled at them with venom in his voice.

The whole room was silenced by Naruto's harsh tone. Naruto didn't notice. He just put his fingers to his temples massaging them. 'Shit I must be having a migraine.' He thought.

Naruto then stood up and staggered to the front of the room to a stunned Kakashi.

"Kakashi I'm going home I have a migraine." He said not even pausing long enough to look at the teacher.

Naruto started staggering down the hall towards the front of the school so that he could get home. His head hurt so much that he thought it was going to explode. He didn't notice that he wasn't walking anymore. He was on the floor of the hallway in the fatal position. He held his head in his hands. The bell went off to signal the end of class and Naruto groaned at the loud noise.

* * *

Students started to fill the hallways. They noticed Naruto and he soon had a crowd gathered around him. One student broke through the rest and picked him up.

"Piss off if you're not going to help him." He said quietly but harshly enough that everyone cleared off.

The older, redheaded boy carried the younger to the front office ignoring the stares he got from his fellow classmates. He walked in and placed Naruto on a coach before nodding to the secretary and barging into the Principal's office.

The Principal was asleep at her desk on top of some undone paperwork. The redhead poked her shoulder urgently hoping it would wake her up.

"Wha-," Tsunade said starting to wake up. She noticed the red haired boy in front of her looking at her urgently. "What do you need Gaara?"

Gaara glared at her annoyed by her tone but said "I found Naruto on the floor in the fatal position. He didn't even respond when I carried him to the office." He bluntly stated.

This seemed to get her attention and she shot up and went into the next room. She looked at Naruto who was still holding his head. She then concluded what Naruto did and got some aspirin and a mild sedative from the nurse's office. Tsunade administered them herself still being able to do so because she had once been a doctor.

Once that was done she looked at Gaara and said "I think he was having a severe migraine. I gave him aspirin and a mild sedative. He won't wake up for a while. He should be fine by tomorrow though."

Gaara's face was blank even though he was very worried about Naruto. "Thanks." Was all he said.

Tsunade then said "After school I will need someone to take him home because he might not be awake yet. Will you do that?"

Gaara was astonished that she would trust him to get Naruto home safely. He had been to see her more than a few times for disturbances. But he didn't let it show. "Sure, I know where he lives. I can take the bus."

"Good. Now please go to class, he won't be awake for a bit." Tsunade ordered Garra.

Gaara turned and left Naruto with Tsunade. He was really worried about him but knew he couldn't do anything. So, Garra went through the rest of his day normally as he could while Naruto lay unconscious in the nurse's station.

* * *

At the end of the day Gaara was the first one out of his last class. He didn't stop at his locker because he already had all his stuff, planning ahead. He went to the office. He got there and went into the nurse's station he picked up Naruto looking at the nurse he said

"I'm going to take him home now, ok." It almost sounded like a question but was a statement. Knowing that if the nurse protested he would still take Naruto.

The nurse nodded at him as if saying that it was alright that he was taking Naruto. Gaara getting the response he wanted left the room the blond secure in his arms. He walked out of the school ignoring the weird stares coming from all sides.

* * *

One of the staring people was Sasuke. He was dumfounded 'He can stand up to more than ten senior boys but can't take a migraine?' He thought to himself. 'Wait he doesn't look awake anymore, he must have passed out. What happened to him to make him like this?'

Everyone else was trying to figure out what the stupid little guy could have done so that he had to be carried. Only a few noticed that he was actually unconscious.

* * *

Gaara paid them no notice and walked to the bus stop. Even he couldn't walk all the way to Naruto's house while carrying him. He stood and waited for the bus to come hoping no one would ask about the unconscious blond in his arms. His hope however was not answered as he saw Kiba running up to them.

Kiba looked at Gaara worriedly, but still yelled "What the HELL happened?!"

Gaara looked at him emotionlessly. "He had a migraine and was in the middle of the hallway so I took him to the nurse and she gave him a mild sedative." Gaara sated with conviction.

Kiba looked relived. Gaara wondered why, but then realized that he cared about the little blonde in his arms. He was one of the only ones that actually liked Naruto almost at all.

Gaara then unexpectedly nodded to Kiba almost kindly. He was glad when the bus arrived so that he could step on with the blond in his arms. He paid for both of them receiving a questioning look from the bus driver. Gaara just glared at him. He went to the back of the bus. He set Naruto down gently on the seat next to him.

Gaara had decided to take Naruto home with him because he shouldn't be alone while on a sedative. He let the unconscious boy sag onto his shoulder as the bus started up. When it got to Gaara's stop he picked up Naruto and exited the bus. He started to walk in the direction of his and his sibling's apartment. He got quite a few stares, though not as may. He was known to pick fights, so it wasn't that hard to believe that he would be carrying an unconscious teenager.

He got to the apartment building and rang the bell not wanting to have to put Naruto down. Temari answered him through the intercom.

"Who's there?" She questioned.

Gaara responded, "Its Gaara can you buzz me in? I'm carrying something." He didn't want to scare her by telling her that he was carrying another boy from school along with his stuff and own backpack.

Temari only responded by buzzing them into the building. The doors opened and Gaara walked into the building. He walked right up to the elevator not wanting to walk up the stairs while carrying Naruto.

He went up the elevator and to the large apartment he shared with his siblings. Temari was in the living area when he got there.

She gasped at him because he was carrying Naruto. "Who is that?" She asked concerned for Gaara and the other boy.

"He's a friend. He is on a mild sedative because he got a severe migraine at school." Gaara said almost sighing. "I'm going to put him in the extra bedroom for the night."

Temari them changed her mood and smiled. "Ok, I'll help you." She was still a little worried that Gaara had gotten into a fight. But she didn't want to get onto Gaara's bad side even if she was his sister.

Gaara and Temari then took off Naruto's shoes and placed him on the bed. Gaara started to pull up the covers, but stopped noticing that Naruto was still in all his clothes. He blushed at the thought of taking off the other boy's clothes.

"Temari is Kankuro home?" he asked a little embarrassment coloring his words.

Temari looked at him a little surprised, but got over it. "He should be home he's probably in his room."

Gaara was blushing as he said "I'm going to go get him so he can take Naruto's clothes off."

Temari was surprised that Gaara didn't do it himself but then thought 'Maybe he finally figured out he's gay?'

Gaara went down the hall to Kankuro's room. He knocked on the door. But then heard loud music coming from the other side of the door, so he banged on the door with his fist. At the loud banging Kankuro came to the door.

"What is it Gaara?" He asked slightly annoyed at his younger brother.

Gaara looked at him emotionlessly and said "My friend Naruto is unconscious in the guest room. I would appreciate it if you would remove his clothes."

Kankuro was more than a little surprised at his younger brother. He was not surprised that there was an unconscious boy in the next room, but at the fact that his brother had called him a friend.

"Why don't you just do it?" He said still surprised.

"Because I don't think I can do it without getting a nosebleed." Gaara said emotionlessly, but truly embarrassed. 'I guess that this means I'm gay, well at least now I know.' He thought rudely.

Kankuro noticed this and decided to take pity on his younger brother. "Ok, but next time you bring someone home that's unconscious you take their clothes off." He said kidding.

Kankuro went into the guest room to see the unconscious boy that Gaara called a friend. He then went into the guest room where he found Naruto laying on the bed. He was relieved to find that he wasn't unconscious due to any injuries. Gaara went to the kitchen table knowing that Kankuro would take care of Naruto.

* * *

He then started to take off Naruto's clothes starting with his uniform shirt. As he unbuttoned the shirt and took it off quickly to see he was wearing an undershirt. Kankuro sat Naruto up to take the shirt off. When he took it off he was astonished there was a huge tattoo on his well toned stomach. It was shaped like a swirl and wound around Naruto's navel. There were also things around this that looked like a cross between symbols and flames.

Kankuro glanced at Naruto's back and saw a scar that traveled from Naruto's left shoulder to just above his boxers. 'What the hell happened to this guy?' Kankuro thought astonished at the huge scar. Kankuro then looked at the scars on Naruto's face closer, curious and noticed that they were tattoos. He wondered why a kid like him would have things like this on his body.

He took off Naruto's belt and then his pants. He also took off Naruto's necklace so that it wouldn't be uncomfortable. He set it on the nightstand next to the bed along with his belt. Kankuro pulled the blankets up to Naruto's chin. Then took Naruto's clothes and left the room. He closed the door on the way out.

* * *

Gaara saw that Kankuro was done and said "Thanks."

Kankuro dropped Naruto's clothes on Gaara. He was a little spooked by the tattoos and scars on Naruto. He looked at Gaara and said "What the hell happened to that kid?"

"I don't know what you're talking about Kankuro." He responded emotionlessly.

"He has tattoos and a huge scar going down his back. What happened to him?" Kankuro said annoyed not in the mood for Gaara's emotionlessness.

Gaara was a little worried about Naruto at this point. He worriedly said "I really don't know what you're talking about." He knew that Naruto had been beat up a lot when he was little but he didn't know what scar Kankuro was talking about.

Kankuro didn't know if Gaara was telling the truth or not so he said "Gaara Naruto has tattoos on his face and a huge one on his stomach. He has a huge scar going down his back as well."

Gaara was really worried at this point, he knew about the tattoos on his face, but not the one on his stomach. He realized that he had never seen Naruto without his shirt on before.

"Show me." He said not caring about getting a nosebleed now.

The brother's then went back into the guest room and pulled the covers off Naruto. Gaara actually gasped when he saw the tattoo on Naruto. Kankuro sat Naruto up and showed Gaara the huge scar. Gaara paled as he realized that he didn't know Naruto at all. The one person he called a friend was different than he said he was. Gaara left the room feeling a little queasy at the thought of Naruto's scar.

* * *

Naruto was dreaming during the time when everyone was going about their daily activities. He went to his safe place in the light. He was just relaxing feeling safe in the brightness; he was jerked out and into a nightmare.

'A toddler Naruto sits at the table with his parents' happily eating dinner. Suddenly someone knocks down the door. A bunch of men burst into the dining room. Naruto's parents yell at them. Naruto covers his ears. He keeps his eyes open, though. The men grab Naruto's mom and dad. Naruto starts to scream and cry when one of the men grabs him roughly out of his high chair.

The men take something out and pin Naruto to the floor. They quickly take off his shirt and start to tattoo onto his stomach which makes Naruto scream louder. His parents yell at the men to stop, but they don't. After they finish the tattoo on his stomach they proceed to his face, making whisker like marks on it.

The men then silence the two grownups with bullets to the heart. After having to watch their only son be tattooed by the men that would kill them. Naruto cries at the sight. The man holding him takes out a knife cutting his back open. They leave the house, letting Naruto bleed on the floor; no longer able to scream from the pain.

A boy runs into the house crying. He runs through the house while sirens blare. He finds the murdered parents and the bleeding Naruto. He goes up to the now silent Naruto. Naruto looks at him with pleading eyes. The boy who could be no more than 14 says

"You're the one that they didn't kill. I'm sorry." He takes off his shirt and wraps him in it. He picks him up carefully and runs out of the house. The police are there by then being called by the boy who knew that this would happen. He takes Naruto to the ambulance that just arrived.

After Naruto is given to them he finally falls unconscious welcoming the bright light instead of the usual darkness.'

* * *

"AHHHHHHHHHH!" Naruto screamed as he jerked awake from his nightmare. He looked around the room panicking when he didn't recognize where he was. He barely noticed the bed around him. He started to sob not caring who saw him. Right after he started to cry Gaara burst into the room with his pajamas on.

"Naruto what's wrong?" He asked worriedly, his own façade gone as well.

Naruto looked at him sobbing and said nothing curling into the fetal position. Gaara unsure of what to do in this situation went over to the bed and sat down on it. Naruto didn't look at him and continued to cry unhindered.

Gaara reached over to the smaller boy hesitantly and started to rub the small of his back. Naruto glanced up at him questioningly tears running down his cheeks. Gaara then surprised even himself by wrapping his arms around the smaller boy and placing him gently on his lap. Naruto then wrapped his own arms around Gaara and cried into his pajama shirt.

Neither said anything as Naruto sobbed. Once Naruto calmed though, Gaara said

"Naruto I think you were having a nightmare. Please tell me about it."

Naruto looked up at the older boy tears still running down his face. He knew that Gaara wouldn't let him go without an answer.

"I really don't want to talk about it." Naruto said quietly still crying.

Gaara looked at the younger boy in his arms. "You don't really have a say in this Naruto."

Naruto buried his face in Gaara's shirt wracked with sobs again. He started to cough and couldn't stop. He thought about the dream and coughed more.

Naruto suddenly got off Gaara and ran out of the room looking for the bathroom. He found one and ran in. He coughed more and sank to the floor. He threw up into the toilet. Gaara came in and saw Naruto on the floor. He flushed the toilet and sat down next to the gasping Naruto.

Naruto continued to cough and eventually threw up the rest of his stomach into the toilet. Gaara again flushed it. He grabbed a towel and wet it in the sink. He sat Naruto up and grasped his chin forcing him to look. Gaara cleaned Naruto's face then set down the towel. Gaara stood up and picked Naruto up pretty sure that he wasn't going to throw up again.

He took Naruto into the living area of the apartment. Naruto was limp in Gaara's arms not having the strength to resist the older boy carrying him. Gaara placed Naruto on the coach and sat down next to him.

"I want to know about your dream." He said emotionlessly.

Naruto glanced over at Gaara. He sighed, but knew that he deserved the truth. He told him about the dream.

"That's what happened on my first birthday. My parents were killed by gang members. They were part of a gang and killed some people that had friends who wanted revenge. The tattoos on my face and stomach are symbols of that gang in case I lived. Iruka is the boy from the dream though I didn't know it at the time, of course. His parents were killed by my parents. He heard what the men were going to do before they did it. At first he thought it was fine, but then he heard that there was another boy, me. He didn't want the same thing to happen to me. He was too late though. My parents were dead by the time he got there. He was the one that took me to the police. Once he turned 18 he adopted me. We swore a pact to each other that we would never get involved with gangs. I got beat up a lot because of my tattoos. They are a constant reminder of what happened that day. Iruka got me martial arts lessons so that I couldn't get beat up anymore. We were the same. You already know that I'm not stupid or happy all the time. I hid under my mask of happiness. I don't draw attention to myself in any way that could hurt me. I really just want to forget that day. It's coming up too, October 10." Naruto explained the dream sadly.

Gaara stared at him. He didn't know what to say. He had barley said a word during the entire time Naruto was explaining to him. Naruto had always been good to him. He considered him a friend.

Naruto interrupted Gaara's musings by saying, "Please don't hate me," quietly.

Gaara looked at the half naked blond next to him and emotionlessly asked "Why would I hate you?"

"Because my parents were involved with gangs as well as my guardian." Naruto answered a little scared.

"That doesn't matter. You're not the one who killed anyone." Gaara told him.

"Who said I've never killed anyone?" Naruto asked Gaara quietly. He started to cry. 'Just when I get one friend. . .' he thought.

Gaara looked at the crying, scared boy beside him. He saw the pain in his eyes. He surprised himself again as he again slowly wrapped his arms around the smaller boy.

Naruto shocked looked at Gaara. Gaara stared at him. Naruto cried into his shoulder. Never wanting to have to let go of his friend.

Gaara allowed Naruto to cry into his shoulder. He knew that none of this had been Naruto's fault.

Naruto suddenly looked up at him. "I didn't want to kill him. He kept punching me and punching me. He wouldn't stop. I punched him back and hit his temple with enough force that it killed him." Naruto told Gaara. "I didn't want to kill him; I didn't want to kill anyone." He sobbed.

Gaara rubbed Naruto's back as he said this over and over. "Shh, it's OK." He said over and over as well.

Naruto eventually cried himself to sleep on Gaara. Gaara didn't move him and allowed him to stay on his shoulder. It was the middle of the night so Gaara eventually fell asleep petting Naruto's head.

* * *

Made some minor corrections to this chapter!:)

By the way just thought that you should know that I really have no idea if you would ever sedate anyone with a migrane. It just helped with the story.


	8. Really, Really No Good Horibly Bad Day

The next morning Naruto was the first one to wake up. At first he couldn't remember where he was, but then he noticed that his head wasn't on a pillow. He had turned in the night so now his head was on Gaara's lap. Seeing this he blushed hard. It all came back to him. He got up slowly so that Gaara wouldn't wake up. He then searched around quietly for his clothes and things. He went back into the room he would have stayed in last night and found his necklace and his belt.

He looked in the kitchen and found his backpack and other things there. He realized that he hadn't called Iruka last night and he would be worried sick and that he hadn't gone to work either. He continued to look around for his clothes quietly while working out what he should do. He knew that if he left Gaara would just find him at school later. But he really didn't want to have to deal with him. 'It's Friday if I can just avoid him for one day then it will be the weekend and I'll be able to work out what to tell him.'

Naruto finally found his clothes in the small laundry room Kankuro had put them in last night. He quickly put on all the clothes and glanced at a clock on the wall. It said it was 4:50 in the morning. Gaara and his siblings probably wouldn't be up for at least an hour. Naruto left the apartment as quietly as he could. He made his way out to the street and started walking towards the high school. He got out one of his notebooks. 'Shit I didn't do any homework last night either.'

He got out his cell phone while walking to call Iruka. He dialed the number and waited for an answer.

"Hello?" Iruka said at the other end of the phone after 4 rings.

"Hey, Iruka its Naruto." Naruto said while inwardly cringing at Iruka's voice.

"Naruto why didn't you call me last night?! I was really worried about you." Iurka practically yelled at him.

Naruto sighed and said "I got a severe migraine in the middle of school and had to be sedated. I didn't wake up until the middle of the night when I forgot to call you."

"Ok Naruto, I guess you're in the clear this time." Iruka said hesitantly not knowing if Naruto was telling the truth or not.

"Oh, by the way Iruka I'm a senior now." Naruto said offhandedly.

Iruka took a moment before responding. "Naruto I knew you were that smart, but knew you would tell people on your own time. So, great job!"

"I gave all my completed notebooks to all my teachers. I never thought that they would make me a senior. It just means more annoyances for me." Naruto said emotionlessly not bothering with his mask Iruka could see right through it.

"Naruto you should try more you might be surprised. How's work?" Iruka said abandoning the subject of school.

"It's fine. I missed yesterday, though." Naruto said simply not bothering to elaborate.

"Ok good." Iruka said knowing he wouldn't get any more information from Naruto.

"How's track?"

"Good."

"How are your new classes?"

"Boring. Except Anatomy."

"Anything you need to talk about?" Iruka then said knowing the answer.

Naruto paused. "No." He inwardly sighed he didn't want to talk about his dream.

Iruka was surprised at the pause, but decided not to comment. "Ok, Naruto talk to you in a week. Ok?"

"Yeah, Iurka I'll call you."

Naruto hung up and found he was a few feet from a bus stop. He stopped and waited for the bus to arrive. He knew that this bus would head to the stop near the school in five stops. He had been all around the city on the bus system because there wasn't anything else to do in the summer, other than work. The bus came twenty minutes later.

Naruto got onto the bus and scanned his card. He picked a seat in the middle of the bus. After the fourth stop Naruto moved up closer to the front. He pulled the cord for the next stop sign and waited. He got off the bus and walked towards the school. Not bothering to smile because no one would be there so early.

He knew that it was open because he had to come for an early morning detention once. He went into the school and into the library. He got out the things he needed and worked on all the homework from the previous day that he knew about. He then worked on the passed homework and finished all of it. By that time it was 6:50 twenty minutes until his first class. He got some Anatomy books to read so he could easily pass the class. He went to the librarian and took them out. He read part of one and was really entranced when he heard the warning bell.

'Shit!' Naruto thought as he got up. He stuffed all his stuff into his backpack running out of the library. He jogged through the halls to his Statistics class while putting his mask in place. He walked into the classroom just as the bell rang. Naruto looked at the back of the room and saw that all the seats were taken. He picked one in the middle of the room instead. He sat down and pulled out his notebook. He doodled the whole time the teacher was talking. Once she stopped Naruto did the assignment on the board silently.

The bell rang and Naruto waited for the room to empty before he went up to the teacher and gave her all the old assignments. She thanked him and Naruto left saying almost nothing.

Naruto went to his next class keeping his head down so that Gaara wouldn't find him. He went into AP Physics and repeated what he had done the previous class. He went to gym and ran the entire time not saying a word, but smiling like he didn't have a worry in the world.

Naruto then headed towards the courtyard to avoid Gaara. He always ate inside. Naruto went to the courtyard and ate his lunch watching two birds fly around the trees. There weren't many people outside and none of them talked to Naruto. He went to History dreading what was to come. He had completed the project, but really didn't want to talk to his teammates.

He dragged himself into History, again wanting to ditch. He walked to the back of the room and got out his notebook. He buried his head in his arms and waited for class to start. It did and they were supposed to work in groups. Naruto painfully lifted up his head and waited for his teammates to come over. Once they did Naruto gave Sakura the notebook without a word. He laid his head on the table again and waited for one of the others to talk.

"Naruto get up!" Sakura commanded.

Naruto didn't move or say anything.

Sasuke was annoyed at the younger blond haired boy at that point. He did the worst thing someone could have done. He went and whispered in Naruto's ear very seriously "If you don't get up I'm going to tell the whole school your deepest darkest secret."

Sasuke didn't know what it was but knew that it would make Naruto get up. Naruto almost broke down. He sat up his mask gone. The look he wore on his face was pure horror. Naruto saw red as he punched Sasuke square in the jaw.

Sasuke fell to the ground staring at Naruto. He wondered why he did that. He got up and said "I just tripped!" loudly so that the onlookers would go back to work. Kakashi went back to his book not saying anything.

Sakura was horrified. She was didn't do anything, though. She did wonder what Sasuke could have said to make Naruto so mad.

Naruto put his head back onto the table to hide the few tears that escaped his eyes. He whispered "I didn't want to. I didn't want to."

Sasuke and Sakura stared at him. He had just punched _the_ Sasuke Uchiha. Best student and most popular boy with the girls in the high school. Naruto didn't move for a few minutes once he got a hold of his mind he looked up at the other members of his group.

"Um, Naruto is this the translation?" Sakura asked, wanting to quell the tension.

"Hai." Naruto said reverting to Japanese.

"I guess I can start to memorize it." She said hesitantly, still staring at Naruto funny.

"The translation from Japanese letters is also in there you should give it to Sasuke." Naruto said emotionlessly. He wished they wouldn't look at him like that. He could feel their eyes boring into his eyes.

"Sure." Sakura said, not positive what she should do. She looked between Sasuke and Naruto and started to read the notebook.

Sasuke glared at Naruto. Naruto just stared blankly back at him. Sasuke grudgingly gave the staring mach up and decided to find out what was up after class ended. Naruto lay his head down again and went to sleep. He got to his safe, bright place. When the bell rang Naruto went to the front of the class and gave Kakashi all the old homework silently.

Kakashi didn't let him go yet though. "Naruto what's wrong with you? You barely said a word all class. And I don't think that Sasuke tripped. What's wrong?"

Naruto made sure his façade was in place then smiled and said "Nothings wrong Kakashi. Sasuke tripped and I don't like talking. Is that good enough for you?"

"Naruto you and I know that isn't true. So, just tell me what's going on. Maybe I can help." Kakashi said impatiently.

"Nothing's wrong Kakashi! OK?" Naruto said pretending to be playfully angry.

"Naruto you know I could call Iruka, right? Tell him that something is wrong." Kakashi said suddenly.

Naruto looked at Kakashi stunned almost no one knew that his real guardian was Iruka. He sighed defeated and said "Kakashi don't call Iruka. I'm sure that you heard from Asuma what happened that day. Let's just say last night my past came back to haunt me."

Naruto left the room leaving Kakashi to ponder what he meant exactly by that. When Naruto got out into the hall Sasuke was waiting for him. Naruto started walking to his next class without giving him a glance. He was still thinking about his conversation with Kakashi.

"Why the hell did you punch me?" Sasuke hissed at him.

Naruto glanced over at him and asked "Did you say something Sasuke?"

Sasuke stared at him for a second, annoyed. "Meet me outside after school."

Naruto gave him a look that said 'why would I do that'.

Sasuke walked passed him going to his next class and hissed "Because if you don't then I will tell the entire school your secret."

Naruto paled and ran in the opposite direction towards the bathroom. Once he got there he threw up in one of the toilets. He sat down on the dirty floor for a moment gasping. He got up after a minute and flushed the toilet. Then cleaned himself off in the sink. He heard the bell for the next class ring. 'SHIT!!!'

Naruto left the bathroom and headed for his English class. He walked quickly, but didn't run. He got to the class room and put his signature smile on his face. He opened the door and walked bluntly into the room. Asuma was explaining something on the board so saw him right as he walked in.

"Take a seat Naruto and come talk to me after class." Asuma said.

Naruto sighed loudly and said "AW come on!" Putting his façade to the test. He walked to the back of the class though. He sat down and put his head onto his hands. He stared at Asuma for the rest of the class mentally noting the home work. After class he pulled out his notebook and wrote the assignment down. He went to the front of the class where Asuma was waiting.

"Naruto why were you late?" He asked.

"Oh, I was just throwing up in the bathroom." Naruto said smiling, not caring if he believed him or not.

Asuma gave him a weird look then said "Since it's your first time being late to my class I can give you a pass but next time I'm going to have to give you detention."

"OK! Thanks!" Naruto said smiling too brightly. He was actually really glad that he didn't have detention he simply didn't have the time. Naruto gave Asuma all the old assignments he was supposed to complete. Naruto then waved at Asuma as he exited the room.

Naruto started jogging right after he left knowing that he might be late for his next class. He made it just in time. Breathing barely labored Naruto sat down in the back of the classroom. He took out one of the Anatomy books he got from the library that morning knowing he would remember the stuff better if he did it on his own terms. He wasn't actually disturbed that class. He was so surprised that he almost said something. 'All I have to do now is avoid Gaara. Oh, fuck and talk to Sasuke without Gaara seeing him. FUCK!'

Naruto did the assignment on autopilot. He handed it into Shizune without a word. He was the first one done which surprised him. This stuff wasn't that hard to figure out. Naruto then read more of the Anatomy book he got from the library that morning, finally having found something interesting to do with his time. He read the book until the end of class and heard the bell ring. He finished the page he was on then stuffed his things into his bag.

He grabbed all the Anatomy homework that he completed that morning and gave it to Shizune. He was about to leave when Shizune said

"Um, Naruto I can't understand half of your assignment that you turned in earlier."

Naruto truly confused turned around and asked "Why can't you understand it?"

Shizune looked at him funny and said "Part of it is written in Chinese or Japanese or something and I don't speak those languages."

Naruto took back the paper he had given her earlier and saw that it was partially written in Japanese. 'Shit too much Japanese lit!'

"Sorry Miss. Shizune. I'll get it to you tomorrow in English OK?"

Shizune was still staring at him weirdly but nodded.

"Bye!" The blond said with a fake smile and a short wave.

Naruto walked to his free period keeping his head down. He was having a horrible day and didn't want it to get worse by bumping into Kiba or Gaara. He walked into the study hall class and sat down in the back. He rewrote his Anatomy homework this time all in English.

He did his English homework on auto pilot in a few minutes and checked it to make sure it was all written in English. He then started to doodle liking how he could become completely consumed by the drawing. The bell rang after when he was drawing. He finished up what he was working on then left the empty classroom.

Naruto walked down the now close to empty halls of the high school. He took out his IPod and blasted his music in his ears not caring how much it was damaging his ear drums. He hoped he wouldn't run into Gaara when he met Sasuke. He was really mad at him. 'How could he possibly know about that?' He thought to himself. The only two people in the world that knew about that were Gaara and Iruka and possibly a few more people.

He walked out of the building and headed towards the back knowing that was probably where Sasuke wanted to meet him. His eyes were on the ground and he allowed his smile to slip from his face. He felt like he was going to barf again. He really didn't want to face someone who knew that he had killed someone. 'Well maybe he doesn't know. Maybe he thinks I care about something like wearing the wrong thing.'

Nonetheless Naruto continued to walk to the back of the school. He stopped when he got to the edge of the woods. He finally looked up from the ground and looked for Sasuke. He saw him standing a few feet from him looking the other way. Naruto walked over to him.

Sasuke said "I want to know why the hell you punched me earlier."

Naruto didn't answer for moment thinking about what he should say. "I just really don't like people talking about my past."

Naruto stuffed his hands in his pockets and waited for an answer from Sasuke.

"I still don't understand why you hit me." Sasuke said emotionlessly. Not relizing that it wasn't the right response.

Naruto stared at him while thinking 'If he doesn't know why I wouldn't want to mention my past then he doesn't know my past. Therefore doesn't know my secret.'

Naruto suddenly smiled really widely and said "Good bye, Sasuke see you tomorrow."

Sasuke tensed his muscles and tackled Naruto to the ground. Naruto just lay under him doing nothing while trying to get a hold on himself. Naruto closed his eyes tightly. He didn't want to harm Sasuke. He had to stop himself from doing anything he would regret. His eyes squeezed shut he thought 'I will not do anything! I will not hurt anyone!'

Naruto suddenly yelled "RUN!!!" at Sasuke.

Sasuke didn't move for a second. But when he saw Naruto's serious blue eyes were flashing red, he pushed Naruto away from him. When he did Naruto got up and ran as fast as he could in the other direction.

Naruto ran away from the back of the school yard at top speed ripping past everyone who was still there. He knew that if he stopped running he would lose control of himself. He had only lost control of himself a few times, he had only hurt someone once and it had been bad. That had happened before the martial arts classes too. Naruto ran blindly knowing the streets so well that he never had to stop.

Sasuke saw Naruto get up and run at full speed to get away from him. He wanted to know what was up and ran after Naruto once he rounded the fist corner. Naruto was fast, but Sasuke managed to keep up with him.

Naruto didn't realize that Sasuke was following him. He ran fast not stopping once. Whenever he came to a red light he would run in a different direction. He didn't head in anywhere specific. He just ran.

He was trying to get a hold on his mind but the force inside was unrelenting. Slowly his eyes turned red as blood and his hands curled into tight fists. Naruto's body slowed to a jog then to a walk. Naruto was no longer in control of his movements. Naruto felt his body slow and tried to speed up again. He started to panic knowing that he was not in control. Naruto went into an alley he saw that it was near the last place he had lost control. He hadn't done anything but would have if anyone had come up to him.

As he went into the alley he pleaded with himself "No Kyuubi! Don't! I don't want to hurt anyone! Not again! No Kyuubi!"

Sasuke ran behind Naruto until he slowed. He watched Naruto from a distance as he started to walk into an alley. He heard Naruto talking to himself, but didn't think much of it until he heard what he was saying.

Naruto was yelling at no one. He kept saying "No Kyuubi!"

Sasuke didn't know why he was yelling so decided to stay behind a wall while watching Naruto.

Naruto panicking on the inside slowly walked down the alley. He had stopped yelling. The thing he called Kyuubi had almost completely taken over his mind. He knew that there was no going back now. He let red completely consume his vision. Through the red he could see what he was doing but was helpless to control his own body. He sat down on the ground and curled into a ball, like a fox does when he sleeps. He hoped that no one would walk down here. If they did they might not make it back out. This was the curse from his parents they had given him this inherited trait. That was why they were involved with gangs in the first place.

He lay on the ground curled up in a ball seeing almost only red. He didn't know how to get out of this state. It had been a long time since he had gone into this. He had hoped that it wouldn't happen again. That was why he was so thorough with his facade, if he wasn't he would probably have this happening a lot more.

Sasuke saw Naruto curl up on the ground from where he was hiding. He wondered what he was doing. He waited for Naruto to move thinking that he might have just wanted a break from all the running. But he didn't get up. After about 10 minutes of Naruto not moving Sasuke started to think that he might have passed out or something.

'Why should I care?' he thought. 'I don't know, but what if you want to know who this weird guy is you should probably be nicer to him.' Sasuke knew that that wasn't the real reason for his concern for Naruto, but it made him feel better.

He made his decision. He started to walk into the alley. He went right up to Naruto who was still curled up tightly in a ball.

Naruto heard a pair of feet walking toward him. He managed to restrain himself until the person came right up to him and started to ask something. Naruto didn't hear him though. He lashed out at him not able to hold himself back anymore.

Sasuke started to ask "Naruto ar. . ."

But couldn't finish because Naruto had punched him square in the jaw for the second time that day.

Naruto punched the unknown guy in the jaw and quickly tackled him to the ground. Pinning him there.

Sasuke didn't have time to react as Naruto tackled him to the ground right after punching his jaw. Sasuke struggled for a moment but it was no use. He looked up into Naruto's eyes and saw that they were completely red.

Naruto stared at the face of the person beneath him. It was Sasuke. He gazed into the Onyx eyes, which were turning red. He was able to resist the Kyubbi's urges. He slowly came back into his body and was able to move it on his own. He heard something but he was already gone. He passed out on top of Sasuke.

Sasuke stared at Naruto's eyes not able to say anything for a moment. Then he yelled "Naruto what are you doing?!"

He saw Naruto's eyes slowly turn back into the normal blue color that he had seen in class. Naruto didn't respond to him and a few seconds later passed out on top of him.

Sasuke nudged the blonde on top of him getting no response he flipped him over and saw that he was passed out. He checked his pulse and breathing to make sure he was OK. He didn't want to have to try to explain this to the authorities. He sat on the ground for a few seconds staring at the passed out Naruto. Once he decided what to do he put his little plan into action, hoping to again something from the weird experience.


	9. Sasuke's House

I'm sorry that this took me soooo long, but I went on vacation and camping. I also started driver's ed and am trying to do a Rock Lee fanvid. I know lame excuses. Also, this took me a long time because I wasn't sure how I wanted it to go. It was also going to be longer, but I decided against that.

Also I want to thank all four people who have read the whole story so far. Thank you!

I don't own Naruto or any of the other characters.

Enjoy! =)

* * *

When Naruto regained consciousness he wasn't in his regular dream. It was dark all around him. Naruto screamed inwardly and jerked awake. He looked around panicking. He wasn't at his house. It was really dark and he was on a bed naked except for his boxers. He hoped that this wasn't becoming a habit.

He sat up in the bed and almost blacked out again. His head hurt a lot and he felt like he was going to barf. He looked around the room from his place on the bed. It was nice but very plain. Naruto figured that he was probably in a guest room.

He looked around and found his things on a chair by the bed. He got up and put on the clothes. He got his cell phone out of his backpack. It said that it was 1:37 in the morning. He looked around at the room trying to get a clue where he was. He looked out the window and realized that he was in a house. He was in a rich part of the city.

Naruto went to the door of the room and opened it trying not to make any noise. He looked around and saw stairs going down. He quietly went from the room and down the stairs. He looked around in what he guessed was the living room.

He found what he was looking for after a few minutes. There was a family picture on the mantel. Naruto was surprised to see a small Sasuke on his father's shoulders smiling. His mother was beside his father. Next to his father there was another boy who could only be his brother. Sasuke's dad had his arm around the other boy and they were all smiling.

Naruto gazed at the picture for a minute. He then looked around to see if Sasuke was still up. Naruto didn't find him. The house was so huge that Naruto almost got lost. Naruto went back to the living room and looked for the front door. He easily found it and was about to leave when he realized that he didn't know where he was at all and the buses wouldn't be running this late.

Naruto got his cell phone out again. He went to the contacts and hit the send button when he found Gaara's number. Naruto didn't want to call him after his break down but didn't have anyone else to call. The phone rang 4 times before a wide awake Gaara answered "Hello?"

"Gaara its Naruto I seem to be in a bit of a pinch could you come pick me up?" Naruto asked guilty, but his voice serious.

Gaara instantly responded "Of course Naruto. Where are you?" Gaara really wanted to ask why Naruto had been avoiding him but decided not to because the voice on the other end of the phone was dead serious.

"Gaara I think I'm at Sasuke's house." Naruto said a little hesitantly.

Gaara was surprised. "You _think_ that you're at Sasuke's house?"

Naruto winced. "Look I'll explain everything when you get here alright?"

"OK. I can get Sasuke's address from the phone book. I'll be there as soon as I can."

Naruto didn't know what to do while he waited for Gaara to get there. He really didn't want to face Sasuke after showing him _that_. He could barely remember what happened. He remembered running, an alley and then a pair of onyx eyes and then nothing. Plus he still felt like shit.

Naruto decided to wait for Gaara on the driveway not wanting to stay in the Uchiha residence any longer in case Sasuke came down. He sat down on the curb. He had been waiting for a while when he heard someone open the front door. Naruto didn't look at the person that came out the door knowing who it would be. He wasn't surprised when that person came up to him and tapped him on the shoulder.

Naruto didn't turn knowing that it wouldn't matter if he did or not. The older boy sat down right in front of Naruto. Naruto didn't look at the older male in front of him. He had totally lost it when he was with him. He was going to hate him. He wished that this didn't happen. It's not like he wanted Sasuke to hate him, sure he was a stuck up jerk but he hadn't done anything to hurt him.

"What the fuck happened to you?" Sasuke asked after he figured that Naruto wasn't going to talk to him.

Naruto didn't respond but drew his knees to his chest and buried his head in them. He couldn't tell him. He couldn't tell anyone. They would all hate him like the kids from his old school.

Sasuke saw the distress the blonde was emitting but still wanted to know. He repeated himself softer and with more empathy. "Naruto I really want to know what happened. I think I deserve that much at least."

Naruto agreed with the Uchiha but still didn't want to tell him. He hadn't really told anyone about the specifics of his condition. Only Iruka knew a little of what the blonde went through. He didn't lift up his head. His mask was almost broken. He just wanted to start crying. He didn't want to feel the emotional pain anymore. He griped his legs harder and shivered. It was cold outside and he was only wearing his school uniform.

Suddenly the boy in front of him moved and sat next to him. Sasuke hesitantly wrapped his arm around Naruto. Naruto didn't really want the contact from the boy next to him but needed something to keep him from breaking. He cautiously leaned his head against Sasuke's shoulder. He was surprised by the contact. 'Doesn't he hate me?' Naruto asked himself.

* * *

Sasuke saw Naruto shiver from the cold. He looked so pitiful and innocent. Sasuke suddenly got up and sat next to Naruto on impulse. He then surprised himself by hesitantly wrapping an arm around the smaller male next to him. He blushed and was glad that Naruto wasn't looking at him. 'What the hell am I doing?' Sasuke asked himself. 'This isn't what Uchiha's do especially after they are almost beat up.'

He knew that it shouldn't but his arm around Naruto felt so right. He didn't really know him that well even though he had gone to the same school as him since he was in preschool. Sasuke was surprised when Naruto rested his head against his shoulder.

* * *

Naruto saw the look on Sasuke's face when he leaned on Sasuke. He saw straight through Sasuke's hard mask for a mere second. Naruto hadn't even realized before then that he was also constantly wearing a mask on his face. Naruto saw the same look that he himself had worn all the time at one point. Naruto didn't say anything but still leaned against the older boy.

Naruto let his eyes close. He felt safe. He didn't know why and that scared him. He really didn't like that Sasuke was blushing at him. He didn't like how much Sasuke saw of himself. It scared him because he knew he couldn't trust anyone. So, how could he possibly feel safe with _Sasuke_ of all people? 'Sasuke has done nothing to gain my trust. Why am I letting him hug me like this?' Naruto thought.

Naruto quickly concocted a plan to make sure that Sasuke would never see anything ever again. He knew that it would also fool everyone else as well. He liked the feeling that he had at the moment but was really scared of feeling safe with anyone. He only had to convince a certain someone to do something for him. But he was pretty sure that he would help him.

The safe feeling lasted another moment, Sasuke ruined it by saying something. "Naruto what happened yesterday? Why did you act like that?" He asked emotionlessly, but concerned.

Naruto looked at his concerned eyes, he couldn't do this. "What do you mean?"

"I mean why did you almost beat me senseless in an alley?" Sasuke asked almost emotionlessly.

'At least I know what happened now.' Naruto thought to himself. Suddenly another voice spoke in his head that he only heard every so often. '_Hey Kit. You want to know what you did right?'_

Naruto couldn't think clearly then, his head hurt again. He said out loud "Yes, what did I do this time Kyu?"

Sasuke looked over at him like he was insane. Naruto didn't notice though, he was gone.

'_Kit you idiot stop talking out loud. . . Unless you want him to think that you're completely insane.'_

'I'm not completely insane?'

'_No that's me. Remember?_ _Well, anyways I made you go into the alley. I really needed something to do. So, anyways you curled up on the ground. He came in a few minutes later. I made you attack him and you punched his jaw and pinned him to the ground. Then you looked into his eyes and got back into control. He saved you from hurting him and yourself. I don't know how he did it but you might want to stick around with him. Unless you want to lose yourself to me more. Hahahahahahahahaha.'_

'Thanks Kyu. I don't want to lose myself to you you're completely insane.'

Naruto ended his conversation with the intruder he shared his mind and body with. Sasuke was still looking at him like he was insane. Naruto moved from his embrace to put his plan into action.

"Sasuke look I don't really know what happened, but it won't ever happen again. Is that good enough for you?"

"No, it's not good enough Naruto." Sasuke said bluntly.

Naruto sighed and put his head into his knees again. He knew that his conversation with Sasuke was hardly over. Naruto hoped that Gaara would get there soon. He couldn't do this.

"Naruto!" Sasuke growled at him annoyed.

"Fine I will explain everything from the beginning." Naruto started to talk very fast in Japanese actually explaining everything to Sasuke. Sasuke glared at him.

"There I explained everything." Naruto said hoping that Sasuke would stop glaring at him. 'Gaara please get here soon.' He thought desperately.

"Naruto." Sasuke growled annoyed that he would explain it in Japanese.

"Look Sasuke I can't tell you!" Naruto said desperately. He felt the other side of his mind trying to take over again. He rubbed his temples dispelling the feeling.

"Naruto you run through half of the city, start talking to yourself, almost beat me up, and then pass out. Am I just supposed to dismiss this?" Sasuke asked with an annoyed tone of voice.

"Yes, Sasuke if you know what's good for you, you will pretend that none of this ever happened. It will be better for both of us." Naruto said in all seriousness.

Suddenly both Naruto and Sasuke saw headlights coming down the street. They stood up to get off the road as the car came closer. It stopped right as it got to Sasuke's house. Naruto saw Gaara in the driver's seat and was relived. Naruto started to walk over to Gaara's car. Sasuke stared at him from his spot on the grass.

Naruto walked purposefully towards the passenger side of the car. He stopped as he opened the door and said

"Sasuke just forget about this."

He got into the car and put on his seatbelt. Gaara looked him over then put the car into drive and started towards his house.

* * *

K I'll explain my thinking next chapter! I promise! You will know everything about my Naruto. (don't own him, but you'll know about _this_ Naruto.)


	10. What Happened

They drove in silence for a while. Naruto didn't say anything looking out of the car like a child who was just punished. Gaara didn't say anything as he drove. He had his emotionless mask on along with a hard look. Once they got to their destination Gaara said

"Get out."

Naruto looked around a little bit disoriented. "Where are we?"

Gaara opened his door with a popping sound and said "We are at the parking garage near my apartment."

"Oh." Naruto said "why didn't you take me to my apartment?"

"On the phone you said that you would explain everything. I want to hold you up to that." Gaara said a little coldly.

Naruto sighed, but said "Fine, Gaara."

Gaara led the way out of the parking garage and to his and his sibling's apartment. They walked in a slightly uncomfortable silence like in the car. But neither of them wanted to break it. They walked all the way inside the building without a word to each other. Gaara only points the way to where he wants Naruto to come with him next. Soon Gaara and Naruto are in the apartment building. Gaara quickly directs Naruto to his apartment and they step in.

Naruto recognizes it from the one other time he was here. Gaara nods to the couch and goes to the kitchen to get some water. Naruto sits down on said couch and waits for Gaara to come back.

'What I'm I supposed to do? I can't tell him the truth can I? Why did I say that? What am I supposed to do? Kubbi! What am I supposed to do if anyone finds out about me…'

'_God calm down kit! You trust this guy right? You should tell him. Besides we both know you need help. Otherwise I won't be able to control myself and get out more. Kit you have to do something! I don't really __**want**__ to go and beat up people, but animal instincts you know.' _

'I know Kyu. But, what am I supposed to say? Gaara I'm insane please help me. That sounds really bad! I can't do it! I can't do it! I can't do it! I can't do. . .

'_Kit! Calm! Just tell him!'_

Gaara came back from what Naruto assumed was the kitchen with 2 glasses of water. Gaara handed one to him before he sat down opposite from him.

It was only then that Naruto noticed that Gaara wasn't wearing his normal black attire but just a pair of sweats instead. 'Well it is the weekend.' Naruto thought to himself. Gaara stared at him for a moment before looking at him pointedly and saying

"Well why don't you tell me what happened today?"

"That will just take longer. I guess I could just tell you everything…"

"Go on." Gaara said a little too fast.

"Well. . . Um . . . You already know what happened on my first birthday so I guess I don't have to tell you about that but . . . There's more. I never said why they killed my parents and until I was 13 I didn't know why . . . They were killed because they wanted out. They no longer wanted to be involved with the gang. They really were forced into it in the first place. They never really had a choice. My parents were in the gang because they threatened them and well the gang knew a secret of my father's. He accidentally killed someone. . . Kinda like me, but well. . . he didn't regret it. He wanted him to die. So, the gang that wanted to use him told him that they would tell if he didn't join. He joined. My mother is a little different she joined because she wanted to. She wanted to rebel against her parents. But after a while she didn't want to be there anymore. The gang leaders said that they would tell the police some things that she did if she didn't stay. My parents eventually got together in the gang and conceived me." Naruto then paused, not looking at the other teen.

"After my parents found out that my mom was pregnant, they quit the gang. They moved out of the city and settled down. They even changed their names. But eventually a rival gang that wanted them dead found them. They were the ones to mark me. They wanted to force me to join their gang one day. That is why no one ever used to talk to me and why still many don't. Iruka is the boy that found me in my house bleeding almost to death. He adopted me. His parents were killed by my parent's gang or my parents killed his parents or something. That's one thing that I'm still not really sure of. But he is the only father figure I have ever known. He and I made a pact a long time ago. We both swore that we would never get involved with gangs. But one day I know that the gang that marked me will hunt me down. Not only because of the tattoos but because of what I can do. This is the part that I didn't really tell you about. . . I kinda have this, I dunno, voice? in my head. It sometimes takes over my whole body. I become animalistic and can't control myself. You, Iruka, and one of my trauma counselors are the only ones who know about it. Basically I made it when I was very young probably right after the incident to help keep myself alive." Naruto stopped talking and looked to Gaara for a response.

Gaara was looking at him, just looking, not staring. Then he asked "This voice. . . does it tell you to do things or something?"

Naruto tried not to be nervous as he launched into an explanation. "My trauma consular said that I have something called Dissociative Identity Disorder. Basically I have 2 identities; me- Naruto and Kubbi. I guess you could also say I have the identity that I project to the rest of the world, but I see that simply as a mask."

"Does he or she talk to you?"

Naruto looked at him oddly for a second before saying "Yes he does talk to me. I don't know if he is supposed to or not. But he talks to me a lot."

"That sounds like me. But I just hear a voice telling me to do things. Bad things. He won't stop." Gaara said gazing away from Naruto practically mumbling to himself.

Naruto heard what Gaara said, but didn't comment. He had enough things to worry about.

After a few minutes of silence Gaara asked "So, what exactly happened today?"

Naruto stared at the floor for a few seconds before slowly saying "Today I lost control. I became animalistic. Sasuke said that he knew about my past. . . I got really mad, so Kubbi came out. That's the only time it happens when I get really upset. So, Kubbi came out and I almost killed Sasuke. But something stopped me. . . I don't know. . . Anyways I passed out and I guess Sasuke took me home with him." Naruto shrugged.

Then he stared out into space. He had never told anyone all of this. Iruka had known and the trama consular didn't know about most of it and most of the things he had known he had learned from a folder.

"Um. . . Ok." Gaara said very quietly. He was really worried about Naruto at this point and had no idea what to do.

Naruto obviously needed some help, but there wasn't anything he could do. Not with himself in such a similar situation. He guessed that he should tell Naruto everything about himself, as well. He knew it would change everything between them. Before Naruto had tolerated him and currently he was depending on him, but should he be?

Gaara could only think of one thing to do to comfort Naruto. He walked over to the other side of the couch and sat down next to him. "Naruto. . . you know if you ever need anything. . ."

Naruto snapped out of his blankness and nodded to Gaara. "I know. . . You've always been good to me."

Gaara and Naruto sat there for a few minutes each encased in their own thoughts before Gaara said "I think that we should go to bed."

"Yeah, that sounds good." Naruto answered passively.

Gaara got up and went to his room and got Naruto some other clothes. Naruto sat there for a minute and drank some of the water that Gaara had got him. Naruto changed in the bathroom. Then Gaara showed him to the guest room. Naruto thanked Gaara and lay down on the bed. He got to his normal dream pretty easily; he wished it would never end.

* * *

Hey I'm really sorry that this took so long. But I was having immense writer's block. Also school started, swimming started and homework started. I'm in practically all classes most people would consider a grade above me, so yeah lots to do. But I hope that you like it! Sorry its not longer. R&R please! I love and respond to all!


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